This photographic series continues Santina Amato’s exploration of bread dough as a metaphor for the abject, using its physical creation as a commentary on the emotional and physical labor women bear in personal and professional relationships. Set in her childhood kitchen—the heart of her Italian family—the series documents the process of making a large amount of dough under the watchful eye of her ageing mother, who dressed her in a pure white, feminine dress with an apron—symbols of the ideal housewife, a role Santina resisted despite her mother pruning her to be one.

As she works the dough with her entire body, the series captures the complex emotions of love and frustration toward domestic labor. While Santina embraces the strength she feels creating with her hands, she also grapples with the weight of cultural and familial expectations placed on daughters—particularly around caring for ageing parents. This labor, often invisible, is expected of women and comes with emotional and physical strain. The final photograph reflects the bittersweet joy of caring for elders, balancing the exhaustion of that responsibility with the recognition that these moments, though heavy, are finite and filled with meaning.