Fragile Monuments to Unwritten Histories

Palazzo delle Zattere, Venice

Fragile Monuments to Unwritten Histories presents a series of large-scale analogue photographs in which masked figures appear within undefined landscapes, suspended between presence and disappearance. Rather than functioning as portraits or narratives, the works operate as propositions—images that resist fixed meaning and invite reflection on identity as something provisional, layered, and continuously re-formed.

Produced through analogue photographic processes, the works emphasise materiality, slowness, and physical engagement. Each print carries traces of manual labour and time, foregrounding the image as an object rather than a surface. This approach counters the speed and immateriality of digital reproduction, allowing the photograph to hold weight, texture, and duration.

The masked figures do not reference folklore or ritual directly. Instead, they suggest speculative forms of subjectivity—bodies shaped by displacement, fragmentation, and the erosion of dominant historical narratives. The mask functions not as concealment but as articulation, proposing alternative ways of inhabiting the self beyond recognisable identities.

The landscapes remain deliberately non-specific, removing geographic certainty and historical anchoring. In this suspended environment, history is not illustrated but unsettled, allowing unwritten or marginalised experiences to surface without being fixed into monument or archive.

Presented within the context of Venice’s long history of cultural movement and exchange, Fragile Monuments to Unwritten Histories considers identity as an ongoing practice rather than a stable structure. The exhibition offers no resolution, instead holding open a space where the self may be questioned, reshaped, or momentarily released from definition.

Fragile Monuments to Unwritten Histories was presented at the V-A-C Foundation’s Palazzo delle Zattere, Venice, from 14 April to 28 July 2022.