Sonata in Fa(scismo)

If erasure is a tool of the oppressor — used to silence, obscure, or rewrite truth —then remembrance is the tool of the revolutionary.
 

When erasure conceals, the revolutionary reveals.
If erasure deletes, the revolutionary inscribes.
If erasure fractures, the revolutionary remembers — and re-members — the whole.

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Although the lotus grows in muddied waters, they are not tainted by it.

 

To live in the current moment of human history is to be confronted by many truths at once. Access to technology and global archives has shattered long-standing, curated narratives about nationalism, identity, and historical figures. 

This project is a reflection on the tension between individuals and the works they create — how we grapple with the legacies of creators whose beliefs may deeply conflict with our own.
 

The music paper used in this piece is a page from Sonata in Fa (1921) by Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880–1969), an Italian neo-classical composer whose music is still studied today. Pizzetti was also an open supporter of Italian fascism and a signatory of the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals in 1925. Printing lotus imagery on this page serves as a metaphor for how history builds upon itself.  Embroidering into it, I pierced holes in the past to create something new, not to erase, but to transform and remember. 

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To listen to the Sonata, click here

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