Brad Birchett Art: 2015

Monday, February 23, 2015

Thomas, Italy - 1945

In the summer of 2014 I traveled to Italy for the first time. During this time I followed part of my father's footsteps from his tour during World War II. Earlier, I researched his regiment's path northward and found that he was part of the movement that liberated the city of Volterra. He began in Naples and moved north all the way to Milan where in the end he guarded the street where Mussolini hung.

In homage I created copies of a contraband photo of my father taken on the front lines, making the copy slightly larger, a degree from the original. This image was considered illegal contraband at the time so seeing it as a child was always a source of mystery and intrigue. When removing the photo (made directly from the negative and edge-torn from a contact sheet) from the old family photo album I found writing on the back, written by my father at a much later date, so as not to forget the event of the photo. On the back of my copies I forged the same words in my father's then hand writing. I placed 5 of the 6 copies at various landmarks across northern Italy, in a similar way one places icons on sacred ground in memorium. I used the sixth photo to show the people I met during the intervention, as I explained my father's experience in Italy from 1943 to 1945. I also recorded the sounds around me during the search for the various sites.