Silvia Rosi uses photography to explore heritage, identity and migration. Using memories, symbolic objects, rituals, and experiences to reflect on stories of strength, struggle and hope, her practice is an inquisitive personal journey that weaves together past, present and future.
Q > In your work, what themes do you pursue and why?
A > My work speaks about family narratives. I’m interested in archival images as traces of family life and experience. In the case of my family I explore themes such as diaspora and representation. I’m interested In the history of photography, portraiture in general and how it influences the way we make images now. But, I also touch on themes such as market trade and women’s social and economic contributions in such contexts.
Q > Which questions do you often ask yourself in relation to your practice as an artist?
A > I guess I ask myself what urges me to make work, and what are the reasons that push me to research a certain topic. By asking those questions I became more aware of my intentions, as well as able to challenge them.
Q > What’s your biggest source of learning?
A > Probably the internet, but also books, music, films and good conversations.
Q > Becoming. Rebelling. Corrupted innocence. Trauma — What key experiences have shaped your adult life?
A > Certainly moving from Italy to the UK. I grew up in a small village where my identity as a black Italian was constantly challenged. I was 18 when I left and I had never seen a black bus driver, teacher or, for instance, a black police officer. Moving away from that context gave me a lot of confidence and a desire to interrogate myself about my family’s history before Italy.
Q > Tell us about an inspiring story you refuse to forget.
A > When I traveled to Togo, I met my uncle and had the opportunity to spend some time with him. He is usually based in Canada, where he migrated to study. He is now a professor of economics in Montreal. We met at a bar in Lomè where we sat and spoke for hours. When we were ready to order he grabbed a small iron bell placed in the middle of the table, a beautiful artisanal object that I didn’t notice at first. He shook it to attract the waitress’s attention.
After he did [that] he looked at me and said “I hate those objects. They were introduced during colonial times and the whites used to rang them to call us, and be served. They should be removed.” That stuck with me as symbolic of the intrinsic power of objects and the different meanings hidden in them, something I explore in my work when choosing the props I want to include in my images when narrating a story.
Q > Growing. Belonging. Memory — tell us about your journeys and which places have triggered memorable emotions.
A > Lomè is definitely a place that is stuck in my memories from a really young age. My parents invested in taking us to visit my mom’s place of origin, exposing us to a different reality from the one we were living in Italy.
That gave me a sense of others, and the knowledge there are other places where I can grow and thrive as a person and as an artist. This made living in Italy easier for me in a way.
Q > From global interactions and opportunities, to local resistances — which topics around migration should we be discussing more?
A > I think my work exposes a conversation around freedom of movement and citizenship. Growing up with a migrant mother, I’m interested in understanding the reasons why she migrated and how that experience shaped her family but also the society she’s moving into.
Silvia Rosi (b.1992) is an artist living and working between London and Modena. She graduated from London College of Communication in 2016 with a BA (Hons) in Photography. Recent exhibitions include Small is Beautiful XXXVIII at Flowers Gallery and Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Her work retraces her personal family history drawing on her Togolaise heritage, and the idea of origins. The theme of family is explored through self-portraits in which she plays her mother and father, narrating their experience of migration from Togo to Italy. Her images are partially informed by the West African studio portrait tradition.
