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.