In Threshold and Threshold II, Sara VanDerBeek explored the materials that make up her hometown of Baltimore. Inverted prints of marble stairs overlap in layers to create a slash in the neat rows of the rock’s bright white surface. During the 19th and 20th centuries, marble quarries in Baltimore County supplied the materials for government and cultural buildings inspired by ancient Greek and Roman architecture. Marble was also used to build many of the steps of the city’s iconic row homes. In VanDerBeek’s closely cropped images, uncertainty exists about whether the crisp white stairs come from the grand threshold of a columned building or a more modest neighborhood stoop, creating an uneasy study of the city and the immutable structures which define it. (Antoinette Roberts, How Do We Know The World: Rotation 6, June 10 2024)