In this image, the artist Silvia Rosi acts out the role of her father in her London studio. “It was created in response to conversations with my mother about her and my father’s experience of migrating to Italy,” Rosi, who has never met her father, explains. “All the information gathered to create the image comes from my mother’s perspective—he came from a good family. He was an educated man and moved to Italy with the ambition to find a good occupation and finish his studies. After a year my mother followed him to Italy and found that he was picking tomatoes in a field for a few cents a box. Regardless of his condition he would always wear a suit.” All of the details in the image represent this personal history: the books on the head allude to his education, and the suit a reference to her mother’s memory. The tomatoes, Rosi says, are symbolic of his status as a migrant. A text under the image details his biography further.
The work is part of a series of works commissioned by Jerwood Arts and Photoworks, and currently exhibited as part of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 2020.
