Summary
In the House of My Father is a close-up photographic image of Donald Rodney’s hand, in which sits a minute sculpture of a house. The sculpture exists as an independent work, My Mother. My Father. My Sister. My Brother 1996-7 (The Estate of Donald G. Rodney, London). It was constructed from pieces of Rodney’s own skin removed during one of the many operations he underwent to combat sickle cell anaemia, an inherited disease that affects people of African, Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Asian ancestry. Both works address Rodney’s sense of family and identity, as a British-born artist whose parents had emigrated from Jamaica, as well as themes relating to mortality and his own illness. Sickle cell anaemia is a debilitating disease which causes high mortality rates in children and short life expectancy in adults… (read more)
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