They think I'm golden

Autism and ADHD are still uncomfortable words. But if we don't say them out loud, how can people recognize themselves in them? This project was born from the artist’s desire to explore these experiences through a more playful lens: tarot cards.

When words cannot be spoken openly, they remain vague: they become loaded with prejudice, misunderstanding, and fear. And those who belong to those words often do not know it, because they lack the tools to recognize themselves within them.

In Italy, and many other countries, diagnoses of autism and ADHD still arrive late - or not at all. Diagnostic tests are fundamental tools, but they often fail to account for gender differences and are not always immediately legible to those who have learned to mask their traits over long periods of time. After years of adaptation and compensation, it can become difficult to recognize oneself in the questions, criteria, and standardized definitions. This is aggravated, in many contexts, by a lack of adequate training in identifying the multiple manifestations of autism and ADHD, especially in people assigned female at birth.

This leads many individuals to continue hiding, to avoid taking up space, to keep masking - first and foremost with themselves.

The project emerges from the artist’s need to stop blending in, to no longer carry the weight of reflecting a version of herself that is always bright, high-functioning, golden.

Ferri chooses to work alongside clinical language with a softer, more recognizable tool: tarot cards.

Each card translates an aspect of neurodivergent functioning, often linked to the intersection of ADHD and autism: sensory sensitivities, brutal honesty, reduced social batteries, sensory overload, the constant need for stimulation, and struggling to stay focused. What is often experienced as a deficit or as something difficult to name is here approached through a more visual and less intimidating language, opening up a space for recognition.

The deck does not seek to replace an official diagnosis, but instead poses a question to the viewer: Does it resonate with you?

The images do not speak in place of, but when a voice is missing from public discourse (or remains incomplete), photography steps in and helps us.

If autism and ADHD still remain suspect words today, difficult to pronounce out loud, this work chooses to name them. And therefore, these tarot cards become a tool to finally begin the process of unmasking.