Visit the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards exhibition in Northern Ireland with our touring partner Belfast Exposed from 6 August to 25 September 2021.
Featuring the work of Silvia Rosi and Theo Simpson, recipients of the third Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, both artists explore themes of history, family, identity, industry and architecture, while pushing the boundaries of their photographic practices.
Silvia Rosi’s work Encounter explores her personal family history drawing on her Togolese heritage and origins via her parents’ migration experiences from Togo to Italy in the 1980s. This theme of family is explored through self-portraits in which Rosi plays her mother and father, and is partially informed by the West African studio portrait. This family history and her position as a European looking back on her family heritage is also explored through a visual deconstruction of head carrying techniques, a practice with its own histories, skills, rituals and aesthetics.
Theo Simpson’s work is informed by the tradition of landscape photography, through this he explores human possibility, political impulses and economic transformations. Simpson’s work aims to push the boundaries of photography as a medium, particularly by using sculptural elements. He also combines archival images with photographs he has captured at various sites. The sites in which he photographs often have a direct link to the raw materials which are sourced from the natural landscape. Through this manipulation of images, Simpson creates representative works, which touch on history repeating itself.
Find out more about Belfast Exposed here.
Find out more about Silvia Rosi here.
Find out more about Theo Simpson here.
