If We Care Enough To Look

In this informal gallery talk, artist Aida Silvestri will discuss the arc of her visual activism with curator, friend and long-term collaborator Renée Mussai, senior curator at Autograph.

Surrounded by and in the context of Autograph’s current exhibition Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other, featuring Silvestri’s commission Contagion: Colour on the Front Line (2020-21), the two will look at critical politics of engagement, community care and the development of a research-led conceptual practice where art and advocacy meet.

Silvestri’s commission – a compelling critique that emphasises inherent structural inequalities exposed by the pandemic – probes the devastating impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minority communities. The artist highlights the disproportionate levels of exposure to the virus faced by frontline workers of colour by creating a thought-provoking riposte to populist rhetorics of inclusion – exposing striking parallels between our imperial past and contemporary present.

Drawing on past projects such as Even This Will Pass (2014) and Unsterile Clinic (2015), the conversation will further explore how Silvestri’s socially engaged artistic practice often foregrounds those whose voices are routinely silenced – raising awareness of human trafficking by highlighting the plight of refugees or advocating for survivors of gender-based violence. A key focus will be the importance of employing different visual methodologies and pictorial strategies – characterised by Silvestri’s distinctive approach to representation, often combining text, image and experimental techniques to manipulate the photographic surface in order to present viewers with alternative photographic languages to document collective and individual trauma, as well as to protect her participants’ identities.

Please note, photography will not be permitted at this event.