LABOUR(As I Read), 2026

Digital photograph, 32” x 24”

The still reproduced above is from Antonioni’s 1948 film N.U. (short for Nettezza urbana, the city street cleaning service). This image is overlayed with the word FINE. The film documents one day in the life of the sweepers at work on the streets of post-World War II Rome.

Placed below this is a photograph of the back of a woman’s head as she reads the Italian newspaper il manifesto. Above the masthead, a photograph of the cover of the book L’Oppio del Popolo has replaced the image beside Culture. A second still from the film N.U. , overlayed with the word LAVORO, has replaced the original image on the front page. The text below this image reads “Meaningful Work, she says”, a fragment of dialogue taken from Antonioni’s film L’avventura (1960). The images inserted in the lower left corner of the page are of a poster of Pier Paolo Pasolini, placed beside a photo of Roman street graffiti with the words “Pensa Poetico.”