Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. Autograph new artist commission 2020-2021.
Silvestri responded to the idea of Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other by taking the charged political rhetoric adopted by both mainstream media and politicians during the pandemic as a point of departure – linking phrases such as ‘we are all in this together’ or ‘fighting against an invisible enemy’ with imperial narratives and wartime sentiments. For Silvestri, these slogans not only recall her formative years living in Eritrea under authoritarian communist regimes, but they also expose striking parallels between Britain’s imperial past and present. Using exposure as both metaphor and device, Silvestri highlights the devastating impact of Covid-19 on frontline workers of colour by ‘infecting’ her digital drawing collage and portrait works with commodity substances such as coffee, tea, sugar, or cocoa, creating coloured coronal splashes on the artworks – further amplifying the notion of ‘contagion’. Text by Autograph's senior curator Renée Mussai.

TEXTS
The Rhetorical Fallacy of Inclusion
Read scholar Anthony Downey's response to Contagion: Colour on the Front Line
https://autograph.org.uk/blog/anthony-downey-the-rhetorical-fallacy-of-inclusion/

If We Care Enough [To Look]: In Conversation with Aida Silvestri
Autograph's senior curator Renée Mussai? speaks with the artist
https://autograph.org.uk/blog/if-we-care-enough-to-look-in-conversation-with-aida-silvestri/

European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) 2021 Annual Report
https://www.ecchr.eu/en/publication/ecchr-2021-annual-report/