RICADUTA, Sofia de Rosa (Signed First Edition)

"'RICADUTA' Italian for “falling again,” evoking a return to an older gravity. Awkward has three primary senses: lacking grace or coordination, causing embarrassment or social discomfort, and being difficult to manage or inconvenient. Shame manifests these senses through the body: what we would like to conceal becomes visible. A trivial event, a fall chasing a bus, pulled me back into a past of social discomfort; my knee healed, but the reflex to hide returned. My body betrays me in small movements: a floating head, moments of distraction, a stumble, sudden misalignments, a loss of coordination when observed. As a young woman navigating public life, the labour of composure amplifies my stiffness; the inability to enact it registers as a loss of control. This work maps how discomfort inhabits flesh and how visibility accrues weight." (Words by Sofia de Rosa)