Riti Manuali

Riti Manuali hopes to be a sequence of videos of my hands performing basic tasks that allude subtly to some form of ritual or tradition.

The first video was made after my nonno told me my passionfruit vine will never grow in a pot, so I decided to dig a hole for it in the garden. The first video shows my hands stubbornly digging at the earth with insufficient tools. I am wearing the 'Italian Costume', which occasionally comes into the frame.

The next video presents my soil-covered hands over a fruit bowl, on top of the orange patterned blanket that features in some of my other videos. I am using olive oil and sugar (an exfoliation technique my nonna taught me) to scrub the dirt from my hands. I consider this to be a form of ritualistic cleansing.

Between the second and third videos is a shot of my hands pulling pilled fabric from the blanket. It is a sort of 'tidying' in preparation for the overt feminisation that occurs in the third video, where I paint my fingernails bright red.

In the final video, I have filmed my freshly painted fingernails chopping garlic, as reflected on the blade of the knife. The fourth video is the final step in a journey across genders via my personal interpretation of certain cultural stereotypes. In order to eat, I have to grow food. In order to eat that food, I have to cook it. I think the video is a very simple reflection on the essentiality of existence in terms of sustenance and sexuality.