If you look just below the image’s center you’ll see dots, four small indentations in the painted exterior wall. They’re at odd geometric relations with each other. Several subsets of the dots suggest the beginnings of a square, but all together any hope of true squareness collapses, like a cardboard box after the rain. At some point in the past the doorbell was modernized. The doorbells were, plural, that is, since both a knocker and a twister greet visitors. The long-gone upgrade was likely battery operated, since there is no fifth hole for wiring, though perhaps wiring explains the asymmetric lower right. This upgrade, like so many doorbell improvements, came and went and left a reminder that it had failed. The plaster and paint expose the difficulty in righting the wrong. Take a moment to zoom in on the uneven surface, with its stuffed moats and hardened streams, the topology of domestic futility.
An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.