Famiglia: memory, migration, spirituality and cultural practice as a first generation Australian

Famiglia: memory, migration, spirituality and cultural practice as a first

generation Australian

Submitted By

Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements of the degree of

Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours)

School of Visual Arts & Design

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

La Trobe University

Bundoora, Victoria, 3086

Australia

October 2013

2

Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ 4

Statement of Authorship: .............................................................................................................. 4

List of Illustrations .......................................................................................................................... 8

Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 12

Famiglia: The family ties that bind ....................................................................................... 14

Chapter 1: Spirituality .................................................................................................................. 15

Palm Sunday: getting distracted by Kiefer ........................................................................... 16

La Croce, Gesú and religion: growing up Roman-Catholic ................................................... 19

Chapter 2: Migration .................................................................................................................... 23

The Italian immigrant experience ........................................................................................ 24

Disconnection/reconnection: Italian Australian artists and their practise ......................... 27

C'è posta per lei: letters from Italy ...................................................................................... 34

Chapter 3: Famiglia: a video installation and performance ........................................................ 35

Video One: Chi fai? The performative art making process and documentation. ................ 39

Video Two: Celebrations - old home videos incorporating major life events ..................... 42

Video Three: Hai mangiato? Food at the heart of the home and its importance in cultural

practice. ................................................................................................................................ 46

Chapter 4: Memory and “postmemory” ...................................................................................... 49

Abballati, abballati: story telling through music and song .................................................. 54

Calabrisella Mia: an enactment ........................................................................................... 55

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 59

References .................................................................................................................................... 64

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 66

Appendices ................................................................................................................................... 68

Famiglia: a video installation and performance statement ................................................ 70

Famiglia: a video installation and performance documentation photographs................... 72

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for their assistance, guidance and support towards the

research and preparation of this exegesis:

Proof reading: Julian Bowron, Kristian Häggblom and Danielle Hobbs.

Support and advice: Jill Antonie, Geoffrey Brown, Anna Callipari, Filomena Coppola, Domenico

de Clario, Neil Fettling, Kristian Häggblom, Danielle Hobbs, Heather Lee, Anthony Marcuzzo,

Christian Marcuzzo, Robbie Rowlands, Lee Salomone and Elina Walmsley.

My fellow Honours students: Jennifer Britten, Aleisha Cresp, Daniel Downing, Keven Kozai,

Anissa McRae, Steve Mars, Biankah Miller, Rohan Morris and Lisa Schilling.

Statement of Authorship:

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material

published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis or any other degree or

diploma.

No other person's work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main text of the

thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other

tertiary institution.

Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo: __________________________________ __/__/____ 20131022

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In memory of Antonio Pietro Callipari

24 February 1936 – 3 October 2002

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List of Illustrations Figure 1 My first birthday, 30 October 1972. L-R: My sister Elina, my mother Anna, Me, My

brothers Bruno and Michael. Photo taken by my father Antonio (Tony) Callipari. 13

Figure 2 Dad, Mum and I on the night of my 18th birthday, 30 October 1989. Photo: Elina

Callipari-Walmsley 13

Figure 3 Anselm Kiefer, Palmsonntag, 2006, mixed media 16

Figure 4 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, collecting palm fruit, video still 17

Figure 5 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, The Easter Vigil mass, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Mildura,

Saturday 30 March 2013 18

Figure 6 Christian Boltanski, Monument: The Children of Dijon, Paris, Salpetriere Chapel (1986) 19

Figure 7 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, St Joseph's Catholic Church, Red

Cliffs. 19

Figure 8 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Religious icons and prayer cards and Cross your Heart

installation, off-set print on paper and ink-jet print on Cross Your Heart bra, 2009. Credo: beyond

belief, Gallery 25 Mildura, 2-29 October 2009. 20

Figure 9 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Gesù, perdonami_2011 Mildura Palimpsest #8: Collaborators &

Saboteurs as part of The Kar-Rama Motel Project, Room 18. Photo: Shane Hill. 21

Figure 10 Culotta, N. & O'Grady, J., 1957, They're a Weird Mob book cover 24

Figure 11 They're a Weird Mob, 1966. Film still. Directed by Michael Powell 25

Figure 12 Il Contratto, 1953. Director Giorgio Mangiamele. Film still accessed from the Australian

Film website. 25

Figure 13 The Spag. 1962. Film still. Directed by Giorgio Mangiamele. Image accessed from

Giorgio Mangiamele: Visionary of the Australian Screen. Metro Magazine 170, pp. 75-79. ATOM.

26

Figure 14 Domenico de Clario, A Second Simplicity installation view, Australian Centre for

Contemporary Art, Melbourne. 5 August - 25 September 2005. Image accessed via ACCA

website:https://www.accaonline.org.au/shop/catalogue/acca-publications/domenico-de-clario-

second-simplicity 27

Figure 15 Domenico de Clario, Duet for One Voice performance (installation image), Mildura

Palimpsest #9, 6 October 2013 29

Figure 16 Lee Salomone, not on a waning moon #4, wood & metal shovel handle, wire, ochre, 81

(h) x 24 (w) x 4 (d) cm, 2006 – 2008. Photo by Michal Kluvanek 30

Figure 17 Lee Salomone, other voices/altre voci, 2012, Australian Experimental Art Foundation,

Adelaide. Photo: Grant Hancock 31

Figure 18 Filomena Coppola, Mother Tongue invitation, Mildura Palimpsest #9, ADFA Building, 4-

7 October 2013 32

9

Figure 19 Filomena Coppola, Chasing the disappeared, 2012, 20 April - 8 September 2013, Tweed

River Art Gallery invitation image 33

Figure 20 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Letter from Italy addressed to my grandmother Domenica from

her niece Maria. 34

Figure 21 Elina Callipari-Walmsley's 21st birthday party, 6 July 1985, video still. Videographer:

Francesco Pelle 36

Figure 22 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Famiglia: a video installation and performance. 5:30-6:30pm,

Saturday 24 August 2013, 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. 37

Figure 23 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Famiglia: a video installation and performance, (lounge room

installation view). 5:30-6:30pm, Saturday 24 August 2013, 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. 37

Figure 24 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Mum and I making eggplant patties, video still. 38

Figure 25 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Clearing out the hut, video still. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. 39

Figure 26 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Cuppa for Dad. The hut, 310 Cowra Avenue, MIldura. 40

Figure 27 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, wine flagons, dip tins and findings. The Hut, 310 Cowra

Avenue, Mildura. 40

Figure 28 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, The Hut installation. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. 41

Figure 29 Uncle Mick at Elina Callipari-Walmsley's 21st birthday party, 6 July 1985, video still.

Videographer: Francesco Pelle 42

Figure 30 “The Boys” proposing a toast on Michael and Christine Callipari's wedding day, 15

December 1990. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. Video still. Videographer: O-Line Video 43

Figure 31 Mum, Nonna Domenica, Nanna Lena, Mimi Cufari and Nonno Francesco, Elina and

Bryan Walmsley's wedding day, 19 December 1992. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. Video still.

Videographer: Frank Cufari 44

Figure 32 Nonna Domenica Cufari's 88th birthday celebration. Indi Avenue, Red Cliffs. Video still.

Videographer: Michael Callipari. 44

Figure 33 Dad, Mum and I. Luci and Anthony Marcuzzo's wedding day, 18 April 1998, 310 Cowra

Avenue, Mildura. Video still. Videographer: O-Line Video 45

Figure 34 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Making biscuits with Christian and Mum. Video still. 46

Figure 35 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, My brother Bruno checking the salami hanging from the garage

ceiling. 47

Figure 36 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Bread in the wood fired oven or forno at my mother's home. 47

Figure 37 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Modiano Napoletane Italian playing cards installation,

Presenza exhibition, November 2011, The Art Vault, Mildura. 50

Figure 38 Christian Boltanski, Prende la parole (installation view), 2005, Marian Goodman Gallery,

Paris, 3 September - 15 October 2005. Image accessed via Marian Goodman Gallery website:

http://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/2005-09-03_christian-boltanski/ 51

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Figure 39 Christian Boltanski, Personnes installation view, Monumenta 2010 Grand Palais, Paris

13 January - 21 February 2010. Photo: didier plowy © Monumenta / MCC 52

Figure 40 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, In Memoriam: queste scarpe, 2012, shoes, artificial flowers and

beads, dimensions variable. whitecubemildura, Stefano's Cafe Bakery, 27 Deakin Avenue, Mildura.

53

Figure 41 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, My grandparents' record player was given to my mother after

my grandfather (Nonno Francesco) died in 2010. 54

Figure 42 Luci Callipari- Marcuzzo, Calabrisella Mia, 2013, video still. 55

Figure 43 The dresses belonging to my grandmother (Nonna Domenica) which are worn during

the Calabrisella Mia performance, now belong to my mother Anna. 56

Figure 44 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Calabrisella Mia, 2013, video still 57

Figure 45 Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, 14 March to 31 May 2010, The Museum of

Modern Art, New York. Photo: 16 Miles of String. Image accessed from the 16 Miles of String blog

http://www.16miles.com/2010/03/marina-abramovic-at-museum-of-modern.html 57

Figure 46 Martha McDonald, The Weeping Dress performance, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, March

10 - April 21, 2011. Photo: Christian Capurro. Image accessed via

http://marthalmcdonald.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-weeping-dress.html 58

Figure 47 Mum's video collection 60

Figure 48 Mum and Christian making sauce 61

Figure 49 Exterior of house lit up for event. Photos: Daniel Downing 72

Figure 50 Family photos on hall stand near entrance. Photo: Daniel Downing 73

Figure 51 Looking back from lounge room to entry. Photo: Daniel Downing 73

Figure 52 Guests gathering around the table. Photo: Daniel Downing 74

Figure 53 Bottles of Callipari wine (owned by my Uncle and his son) and dried fruit made by my

mother were offered to guests. Photo: Daniel Downing 74

Figure 54 Eating and serving drinks. Photo: Daniel Downing 75

Figure 55 Mum serving up the food while the video of her making and cooking the food plays on

the television in the kitchen. Photo: Daniel Downing 75

Figure 56 My mother, friend Alicia, brother-in-law Bryan and sister Elina all had a role to play

within the performative element of the event. Photo: Daniel Downing 76

Figure 57 Looking back into the dining room from the lounge room where the audience in the

lounge room where the videos were played. Photo: Daniel Downing 76

Figure 58 The three television screens playing the video installation. Photo: Daniel Downing. 77

Figure 59 Some of the audience sit and watch the videos in the lounge room. Photo: Daniel

Downing 77

Figure 60 Guests linger in the in-between space between the dining and lounge rooms. 78

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Figure 61 Among the guests were my two Uncles (my father's brothers) who attended the

evening and added to the family atmosphere. 78

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Introduction

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Figure 1 My first birthday, 30 October 1972. L-R: My sister Elina, my mother Anna, Me, My brothers Bruno and Michael. Photo taken by my father Antonio (Tony) Callipari.

Figure 2 Dad, Mum and I on the night of my 18th birthday, 30 October 1989. Photo: Elina Callipari-Walmsley

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Famiglia1: The family ties that bind

Family is central to my arts practise, for me it is what makes my world go ‘round. While my family

is far from perfect, their influence is what has made me the person and artist I am today.

Both sets of grandparents migrated to Australia in the 1950s. My maternal grandfather Francesco

in 1951; and paternal grandfather Michele in 1950; as was the custom, the men came first to earn

enough money to send for their wives and children. In 1954 Nonno Francesco sent for his wife (my

Nonna Domenica), daughter Anna (my mother) and son Bruno (my Uncle who later died in a tractor

accident in 1960). My paternal grandmother Elena followed Nonno Michele in 1951, with her five

children (one of whom was my father Antonio); both families eventually found their way to Mildura

and worked hard pursuing varied service for assorted employers.

Their desire for a better life drove them to build a modest life for their family from the land. Like

other recently arrived migrants, they immersed themselves in the familiar and clung to the

traditions and customs of their homeland.

My father died eleven years ago, and since his passing my interest in the family bond, the ties that

bind, has strengthened. The loss of my father was a huge shock to the family; diagnosed with a

brain tumour after complaining of a persistent headache, he died almost six months to the day of

his diagnosis. I recall waking up the morning after his death at my mother’s house, hoping that the

whole ordeal was just a dream, but alas, it was a dark reality.

My father had always encouraged my artistic aspirations (both parents did) and even though they

did not understand why I chose to pursue a career that did not seem to hold much promise in a

financial sense, my father was confident of my eventual success. My father also loved to retell a

story and herein lies the essence of my arts practise: family, memory and storytelling.

Why installation? For my Honours year of study I have deliberately challenged myself. Previously

my arts practise has explored predominately two dimensional mediums; I saw this year as an ideal

time for experimentation, and with the support and guidance of staff at La Trobe University, have

pursued the methodologies of installation and performance.

1 Famiglia is the Italian word for family.

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Chapter 1: Spirituality

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Palm Sunday: getting distracted by Kiefer

For visual drama that will haunt your dreams there’s no-one alive to beat Anselm Kiefer. This is

because, along with being a philosopher-poet, he also happens to be a craftsman of phenomenal

power and versatility. (Schama, 2007)

Figure 3 Anselm Kiefer, Palmsonntag, 2006, mixed media

Kiefer’s work Palmsonntag

(Kiefer, 2006), shown as part of

the exhibition Anselm Kiefer :

aperiatur terra, recent work, at

the Art Gallery of New South

Wales in 2007, is a deeply

stirring work inspired by the

Catholic liturgy for Lent2 and

Palm Sunday3. Inscribed with text from the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah;

Aperiatur terra et germinat Salvatorem… rorate caeli desuper, et pluant iustum. (Let the earth open

and bring forth a Saviour …. Let the clouds above rain down justice on the earth.) 4

Large portrait orientated multiple assemblages of palms and other plants were framed under glass,

installed abutted to each other they covered the entire gallery wall. Reminiscent of the pages of a

revelatory book. A living twelve-metre palm tree lay on the gallery floor, in British Historian Simon

Schama’s words, ‘like an outsize quill’ (Schama, 2007).

2 Lent is the Christian season of preparation before Easter. In Western Christianity, Ash Wednesday marks the first day, or the start of the season of Lent, which begins 40 days prior to Easter (Sundays are not included in the count). Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ - his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection. 3 Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In many Christian churches, Palm Sunday includes a procession of the assembled worshipers carrying palms, representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem. 4 From the catholic liturgy for Palm Sunday and also for Advent; Isaiah 45.8, which inspired the new body of work for this exhibition.

17

Kiefer’s work strikes a chord with me as growing up Roman Catholic, my family and I participated

in these religious rituals many times over the years and still do.

The palm5 was known to the ancient Egyptians as an immortal tree due to its eternal shedding and

regrowing process. Kiefer’s Palmsonntag suite plays out the Passion (death) and the Resurrection

(regeneration) of Christ. Kiefer accumulated materials and objects found on his travels – dried

plants, clay vessels, mud and a mass of tangled thorns from Morocco – not just to represent ideas,

but to re-enact the creation (Bond, 2007) story from within the bible.

Figure 4 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, collecting palm fruit, video still

Although I was

unable to make the

trip to Sydney to see

this work (I received

an invitation to the

exhibition opening in

the mail in 2008

which has been

pinned up near my

work desk at Mildura

Arts Centre ever since), I have found the work to be a great inspiration which saw me utilise

different elements of the palm tree. From my own garden I collected the small round reddish fruit

which fell from the palm trees, drilled holes into them and strung them together with thread to

create forms reminiscent of rosary beads6. I also invited some friends to my home and together

over cups of tea and cake, we made crosses from the palm’s fronds, duplicating those made for the

Catholic Palm Sunday mass.

5 Botanical name Palmae or Palmaceae. 6 The rosary beads provide a physical method of keeping count of the number of Hail Marys said as the forty four mysteries of the rosary are contemplated. The fingers are moved along the beads as the prayers are recited.

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Figure 5 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, The Easter Vigil mass, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Mildura, Saturday 30 March 2013

During this period I also documented the Catholic Palm Sunday, Good Friday7 and The Way of the

Cross8 processions and the Easter Vigil9 mass through photographs and sound recordings. The

primary purpose of the documentation was to record these religious rites, with the possibility of

using them as an element within the installation.

7 Good Friday is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday. 8 The Way of the Cross commemorates fourteen key events on the day of Christ's crucifixion. The majority concern his final walk through the streets of Jerusalem, carrying the Cross. 9 The Easter Vigil, is a service held in traditional Christian churches as the first official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. Historically, it is during this service that people are baptized and that adult catechumens are received into full communion with the Church. It is held in the hours of darkness between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter Day — most commonly in the evening of Holy Saturday or midnight — and is the first celebration of Easter, days traditionally being considered to begin at sunset.

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La Croce, Gesú10 and religion: growing up Roman-Catholic

It’s an old tradition. I’ve always been interested in old liturgical feasts, in Baroque churches, for

example where all senses are called upon. There’s music, sometimes smoke, a smell, the religious

area one is totally plunged into a universe of art and reflection. (Boltanski, 2010)

Figure 6 Christian Boltanski, Monument: The Children of Dijon, Paris, Salpetriere Chapel (1986)

Boltanski’s evocation of the romanticised vision of

the ritualistic aspect of these religious feasts is so

strong visually because I too have found interest in

these elements of the Roman-Catholic faith; I can

almost smell the incense burning while reading his

words.

As a child, my parents would take our family to

Italian mass every Sunday, where we would listen,

sing and pray in my parents’ native Italian tongue.

Once a year we would drive to Red Cliffs to attend

the annual Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and participate in the procession through the local

streets. My family also visited other regional feast days; most memorable are the Feast of San Rocco

across the Murray River at Buronga, NSW, and the two and a half hour pilgrimage by car to Swan

Hill for the feast day of Madonna del Carmelo. My parents collected the prayer cards given out at

these events, some were also gifted by

relatives who had attended other feast

days both locally and overseas.

Figure 7 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, St Joseph's Catholic Church, Red Cliffs.

10 La Croce is the Italian word for the cross; Gesú is the Italian name for Jesus.

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Figure 8 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Religious icons and prayer cards and Cross your Heart installation, off-set print on paper and ink-jet print on Cross Your Heart bra, 2009. Credo: beyond belief, Gallery 25 Mildura, 2-29 October 2009.

In a previous solo exhibition, Credo: beyond belief held at Gallery 25 in Mildura, 2009, I placed my

parents’ collection of prayer cards in a glass vitrine, presenting them in a museum like context to

memorialise these objects, precious to people of the Roman Catholic faith. The inclusion of the

Cross Your Heart bra also provided a hint of humour to the installation, through the method of ink-

jet transfer, I incorporated an image of the Madonna or Mary on the front as a reminder that many

women of Italian Roman Catholic heritage literally and symbolically hold their faith very close to

their chest, and wear a cross or religious medallion on a chain around their neck.

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Figure 9 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Gesù, perdonami_2011 Mildura Palimpsest #8: Collaborators & Saboteurs as part of The Kar-Rama Motel Project, Room 18. Photo: Shane Hill.

My 2011 mixed media installation, Gesù, perdonami, for Mildura Palimpsest #8: Collaborators &

Saboteurs as part of The Kar-Rama Motel Project, curated by Kristian Häggblom, at the iconic 1960’s

Karama Motel, further explored the idea of spirituality. The work included an all-seeing, hearing,

knowing Christ figure subliminally present through a video playing old episodes of Days of Our

Lives11 on the television in the humble motel room I was allocated; a site loaded with potential for

transgression, where someone may have committed a mortal sin. Was the Christ figure a saboteur

of sin? Engaging the mechanism of guilt in this universal location of anonymity? The ubiquitous

contradictory presence of a bible in a motel room was a clue to this troubling moral equation.12

11 Days of our Lives is a daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network in America. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around the world including Australia, but has since been axed from free to air Australian television. 12 Charlotte King from ABC Mildura-Swan Hill recorded a story on Palimpsest #8 http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/09/09/3314538.htm

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Chapter 2: Migration

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The Italian immigrant experience

… In general, they use English words, but in a way that makes no sense to anyone else. And they

don’t use our European vowel sounds, so that even if they do construct a normal sentence, it doesn’t

sound like one. This made it necessary for me, until I become accustomed to it, to translate

everything that was said to me twice, first into English and then into Italian. So my replies were

always slow, and those long pauses prompted many belligerent remarks, such as ‘Well don’t stand

there like a dill; d’yer wanta beer or dontcha?’ (Culotta & O'Grady, 1957)

Figure 10 Culotta, N. & O'Grady, J., 1957, They're a Weird Mob book cover

I recently read the book version13 of They’re a Weird Mob

which is slightly different to the film14. Nino Culotta’s

struggle with the Australian language had many laugh out

loud moments and highlighted the difficulty migrants

must have coming to terms with our unique phrases and

the laconic manner of speaking or “Aussie drawl”. I was

also surprised to discover that the book was not written

by an Italian, but by Australian John O’Grady, under the

pseudonym Nino Culotta.

.

13 Giovanni 'Nino' Culotta is an Italian immigrant, who comes to Australia as a journalist, employed by an Italian publishing house, to write articles about Australians and their way of life for those Italians that might want to emigrate to Australia. In order to learn about real Australians, Nino takes a job as a brickie's labourer with a man named Joe Kennedy. The many laugh out loud moments in the book revolves around his attempts to understand English as it was spoken in Australia by the working classes in the 1950s and 1960s. Nino had previously only learned 'good' English from a textbook. 14 They're a Weird Mob. 1966. [Film] Directed by Michael Powell. Australia: Michael Powell.

25

Figure 11 They're a Weird Mob, 1966. Film still. Directed by Michael Powell

They’re a Weird Mob15, was also one of

my father’s favourite films. He

commented to me some years ago, after

watching the film, what he disliked most

about his early days in Australia was the

derogatory name calling the “new

Australians” were sometimes subjected

to. He detested the term “dago” and

“wog”16, even though the latter term is now commonly and proudly used among my generation of

migrants children. While I sometimes playfully refer myself as a “wog”, I do so knowing how far

we have come in our society, where the idea of multi-culturalism is much more accepted than

when it was when my father was a young man finding his way in this new country.

Figure 12 Il Contratto, 1953. Director Giorgio Mangiamele. Film still accessed from the Australian Film website.

The Italian-born filmmaker Giorgio

Mangiamele arrived in Australia as a

migrant in 1952 and the following year

began making his first full length

feature.17 His films commonly portrayed

the isolation, alienation and encounters

with racism that could be part of the experience of migration to Australia in the 1950s and ’60s.

15 Nino Culotta is an Italian immigrant, newly arrived in Australia. He expected to work for his cousin as a sports writer for an Italian magazine. However on arrival in Sydney Nino discovers that the cousin has abandoned the magazine, leaving a substantial debt to Kay Kelly. Nino declares that he will get a job and pay back the debt. Working as a labourer Nino becomes mates with his co-workers, despite some difficulties with Australian slang and culture of the 1960s. Nino endeavours to understand the aspirational values and social rituals of everyday urban Australians, and assimilate. A romantic attraction builds between Nino and Kay despite her frosty exterior and her conservative Irish father's dislike of Italians.[3] A tone of racism exists in the film between Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-Irish characters such as Kay Kelly's dad Harry (Chips Rafferty) and Nino. This is undermined when Nino, sitting in the Kelly house notices a picture of the pope on the wall. Nino says "If I'm a dago, then he's a dago". Realising the impossibility of referring to the pope by that derogatory term, Harry gives in. 16 The terms “dago” and “wog” are derogatory racial slurs. 17 Mangiamele’s films, Il Contratto (The Contract, 1953) Unwanted (1958), The Brothers (1958), two versions of The Spag (c.1960 and 1962), and Ninety Nine Per Cent (1963) were recently released as a collection on DVD.

26

Figure 13 The Spag. 1962. Film still. Directed by Giorgio Mangiamele. Image accessed from Giorgio Mangiamele: Visionary of the Australian Screen. Metro Magazine 170, pp. 75-79. ATOM.

In Mangiamele’s 1962 version of The Spag,

the death of the young boy Tony was a tragic

reminder of the death of my own uncle Bruno

in 1960. The scene in which Australian Actor

Terry Donovan’s character carries the lifeless

boy in his arms back to the house of his

mother after he was hit by a drunk driver is full of sadness and pathos, and made me think what it

must have been like for my own grandparents to lose their child.

27

Disconnection/reconnection: Italian Australian artists and their practise

Domenico de Clario is an interdisciplinary artist, academic, writer and musician. Like me, de Clario

has been deeply influenced by his family, his Italian/Australian upbringing and the migrant

experience. His experimental, performative art practise is meditative and almost automatic in

nature, whereby he completely immerses himself within the performance with its spiritual, other

worldly qualities through his use of sound, light and voice.

Figure 14 Domenico de Clario, A Second Simplicity installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. 5 August - 25 September 2005. Image accessed via ACCA website:https://www.accaonline.org.au/shop/catalogue/acca-publications/domenico-de-clario-second-simplicity

In 1956 de Clario and his family emigrated to

Australia from Trieste, Italy, leaving behind the one

bedroom apartment where he had lived with his

parents, grandparents and younger sister. A Second

Simplicity, shown at the Australian Centre for

Contemporary Art in 2005, recreated de Clario's

home and home-life at via del Bosco 3, in Trieste. De Clario always believed that if he could manifest

an exact replica of the house he was born in, and then inhabit this space with his family, over a

period of time a circuitry would be reactivated that would encourage a first simplicity (which existed

in their former, simpler life in Italy) to resurface, perhaps allowing a former life lived to be, in some

way, usefully examined perhaps even encompassed. De Clario sees the sharing of the foods that

were prepared and eaten in the former life as an essential component in the attempt to reactivate

this life-circuitry, in the hope that a second simplicity would re-enter their lives again. (Marks, 2005)

When I interviewed de Clario earlier this year he commented that he is influenced by disparate,

even tangential elements in his own arts practise, he also mentioned that to look at art directly is

too overwhelming, as it is difficult to not take on the form of the artwork itself, and prefers to avoid

the “weight of the influence of the artist” (de Clario, 2013). This is an interesting idea, I can see how

the work of another artist can influence one’s own work as I have previously explained in my

analysis of Kiefer’s Palmsonntag (Kiefer, 2006). Although I do believe it is important to attend art

events and exhibitions to see new work in order to develop as an artist and to understand where

one’s own work may sit in current contemporary arts practice.

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De Clario has however found influence in the Arte Povera movement and co-curated an event at

the Australian Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide in August 2013, titled Arte Magra18.

In the interview, de Clario also revealed he is also interested in reading social histories which can

be linked to the work of Italian filmmakers Vittorio De Sica19, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Roberto

Rosselini. In particular he finds interest in the transformation of the Italian culture since his arrival

in Australia fifty-seven years ago, and has attempted to understand what was going on at the time

when many Italian migrants were leaving their homeland, while at the same time distancing himself

from those events. In order to get to the core of the matter, de Clario poses questions to himself

such ase; what changes took place? Why did people come here to Australia? What did they bring

with them? What did they remember? What were the conditions like in Italy to influence their

decision to leave?

I too have been asking these questions of my own family; before my maternal grandfather died, I

interviewed him and asked him about some of his experiences. I only wish I had of commenced my

research earlier so I would have had much more substantial documentation of his experiences,

instead of now having to rely on the memories of my mother and her surviving siblings.

De Clario’s performance at Kelly’s Steps in Salamanca Place, Tasmania used a projection of Pasolini’s

Oedipus Rex20, with an installation of a collection of his objects21, which he believes created an

interesting dimension in the work; “the whole relationship with the father, mother and son” (de

Clario, 2013) incorporated voice and sung “all sorts of things” (de Clario, 2013). De Clario creates a

connection between the movie projection, “the whole historical thing” (de Clario, 2013) and his

own personal objects.

18 Arte magra; from the opaque supports fourteen artists/partnerships to make and stage work in Adelaide: at the AEAF and various locations off-site. Its title arte magra (‘lean’ or ‘meagre’ art) references the art movement arte povera that unfolded in northern Italy in the late 60s and early 70s while its subtitle, from the opaque, quotes an autobiographical essay by Italo Calvino. 19 De Sica was a leading figure in the neorealist movement. 20 Oedipus Rex chronicles the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes who was destined from birth to murder his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. The play is an example of a classic tragedy. 21 This is his personal collection of items that he has been using as components for various installations.

29

Figure 15 Domenico de Clario, Duet for One Voice performance (installation image), Mildura Palimpsest #9, 6 October 2013

De Clario’s work, duet for one voice (tomba

delle cose / tomb of things) at the Dark

Mofo festival in Tasmania, was an all-night,

improvised sound and voice performance,

which marked the beginning of a process

whereby the artist laid to rest the hundreds

of objects he had accumulated as part of his arts practise since 1971. Over this forty-year period,

de Clario has presented a single work, iterated in many forms and in different places; central to this

is a growing archive of everyday objects, which he continually re-examines in terms of its

relationship to himself. Following a final viewing at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney,

the archive travelled to Hobart, to its permanent home and proposed site of burial at the Glenorchy

Art and Sculpture Park on the banks of the Derwent River in June 2013.

He also performed a pared down version of Duet for One Voice at the Mildura Palimpsest #9 event22.

The performance at the Old Mildura Homestead began at dusk, inside the Woolshed building, de

Clario’s haunting vocals resonated within the space, accompanied only by an electronic keyboard;

the addition of seven coloured fluorescent light tubes represented the seven chakras of the body23.

Also of Italian-Australian heritage, Adelaide based Lee Salomone uses everyday findings (objects

made from natural fibres, metals, paint, and wood) to make his artwork from a philosophy of using

what is at hand. Salomone's earlier works from the 1990s addressed rural Italian knowledge and

practices as well as gardening and food self-sufficiency, these traditions have been a life-long

source of inspiration for him as they have also been within my own work.

22 Mildura Palimpsest is a biennial visual arts event that invites artists to engage with the cultural and natural environment of the Mildura and Murray Darling region. Mildura Palimpsest is dedicated to high quality, critically engaged contemporary art in all forms. We aim to provide opportunities for real dialogue between local, national and international artists, and across disciplines. Mildura Palimpsest #9 was held from October 4-7, 2013. 23 There are seven main energy centres (chakras) of the body. The colours are violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Some believe that these chakras are like spirals of energy, each one relating to the others. Using the seven colours of the spectrum, Colour Therapy aims to balance and enhance our body's energy centres/chakras and also to help stimulate our body's own healing process. Colour Therapy uses colour to re-balance the Chakras that have become depleted of energy.

30

Figure 16 Lee Salomone, not on a waning moon #4, wood & metal shovel handle, wire, ochre, 81 (h) x 24 (w) x 4 (d) cm, 2006 – 2008. Photo by Michal Kluvanek

Since 1991 Salomone has moved to

installation, photography, sculpture and

works on paper. His contemplative

installation at the Australian

Experimental Art Foundation in 2012,

titled other voices/altre voci explored

migration as a physical and symbolic

passage.

In the other voices exhibition catalogue,

Salomone explains that work played an

important role in the reconstruction of

immigrant identity; the artwork was

created from wooden and metal planks belonging to Mediterranean migrant workers who arrived

in Australia post World War II by sea. The planks, according to Salomone, are metaphoric for both

the sea voyage that took place and the spiritual passage that occurred from known to unknown.

(Salomone, 2012)

He saw the utilitarian nature of the planks used repeatedly over many years - for concreting,

terrazzo and painting - as historical artefacts. The custodians of the planks and their instruments of

labour helped reshape late twentieth century Australia. Salomone considered the planks to be a

sort of totem; layered in their textures are the dreams and aspirations of the men and their families.

Salomone believes that all objects are imbued with memory and that an object’s history is latent -

present, but not seen - until given an opportunity for its essence to re-emerge. An idea I also share

and explored in my 2009 exhibition, Credo: beyond belief.

31

Figure 17 Lee Salomone, other voices/altre voci, 2012, Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide. Photo: Grant Hancock

The other voices installation

is an artwork of collected

memories, a space where

personal memory intersects

with official history. It is a

contemplative work that

does not provide analysis,

only a place within which

the complexities of migration can exist. (Salomone, 2012) In this regard, the work of Salomone has

relevance to my own work, which is also concerned with similar ideas.

The artist also ponders the Greek adage, “its a bitter-sweet thing, knowing two cultures”, and as a

second generation Italo-Australian, Salomone feels obliged to keep exploring the idea of knowing

his two cultures. He has written and rewritten the story for over twenty years, always trying to find

new words and forms for it.

Salomone also sees the other voices work as a collaborative one, oscillating between an historical

museum installation and contemporary art and attempts to transform inter-generational migrant

experiences into a form of both beauty and meaning.

Filomena Coppola is an Australian artist whose work is influenced by her parents’ migration to

Australia in the late 1950s. Based in Mildura, her work explores this duality through migration,

assimilation and cultural loss.

In 2011, Filomena Coppola’s uncle passed away, he was the first Coppola (of the three brothers

who migrated to Australia) to be buried in Australian soil. Since this time Coppola has thought a lot

about the loss of this first generation of migrants to Mildura and its cultural significance. And like

my own work and that of Salomone, Coppola’s work explores the generation of migrants who came

to Australia post Second World War. With minimal education they embarked on a journey, which

took them around the world to a new country, a new language and a new beginning.

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Figure 18 Filomena Coppola, Mother Tongue invitation, Mildura Palimpsest #9, ADFA Building, 4-7 October 2013

Coppola’s work Mother Tongue, consists of three integral components. The first is a sound piece in

which the recordings of individual voices become a cacophony of many from these three

generations - the original Italian migrants, their children and grandchildren. Individual voice

recordings reciting the alphabet24 in the native language and dialect of the migrants overlay each

other to create a symphony of sound and language. This audio can be heard whilst viewing

Coppola’s detailed drawings of the native orchid which uses petals to allude to the tongue form,

and includes her now signature William Morris wallpaper design as its background. The third

component in Coppola’s project is a documentary film involving the first generation of migrants;

participants were asked to share their story of migration and their experience of leaving Italy, the

journey to and arrival in Australia.

While watching the Mother Tongue documentary at the recent Mildura Palimpsest #9 event, I could

not help but be overwhelmed with emotion while listening to these people’s stories; some left

behind family members they would never see again. This again had resonance for me as my own

grandparents also left behind their brothers and sisters with the knowledge that they may never

see them again.

The Italian language that they brought with them was thick with the various dialects from the

regions that they had left behind. The work [Mother Tongue] responds to the generation of

immigrants as they carry within them the direct connection and disconnection from Italy. With their

24 The Italian alphabet consists of 2l letters, while the English alphabet has 26.

33

passing we, their children and grandchildren, are no longer immigrants. Through their burial in this

soil and their histories, which are now contained in this land - we are permanent residents (Coppola,

2012).

Figure 19 Filomena Coppola, Chasing the disappeared, 2012, 20 April - 8 September 2013, Tweed River Art Gallery invitation image

Coppola’s other work, which has relevance to my interest in memory and cultural practice, is

Chasing the Disappeared, using the markings of the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) to further explore

the idea of cultural loss.

‘It is not until things are gone that we mourn their loss and wish for their return’. (Coppola, 2012)

Coppola interprets the markings in the work as symbolic of the loss of the first generation of Italians

who came to Australia in the 1950’s;

‘with their passing we lose stories, dialects, recipes and memories that marked the early crossings

to Australia.’ (Coppola, 2012)

Coppola reflects on the passing of the first wave of immigrants and the losses; the genealogical

dis/connection to Italy; the local dialects of the 1950s that migrated with them and the

dis/connection to the Catholic faith.

34

C'è posta per lei: 25 letters from Italy

While in Melbourne earlier this year, I visited the Bea Maddock exhibition at the National Gallery

of Victoria International26. One of the artworks on display incorporated a framed letter sent to the

artist from Italy. Standing before this work I had a “light bulb moment” to include the letters written

to my own grandparents from their relatives in Italy.

Upon my return home I discovered that my mother had only kept a handful of letters after my

grandfather died in 2010. The letters were also a one-way dialogue in that we had no record of the

letters sent from Australia back to Italy. My mother would read the letters to my grandparents; she

was also the family’s scribe as neither of her parents could read or write, except to sign their name.

Figure 20 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Letter from Italy addressed to my grandmother Domenica from her niece Maria.

I recorded my mother reading the three

letters (two from Italy, one from Argentina)

and also photographed her holding them.

The letters would be represented

photographically on a tablet device then

affixed to the wall, the viewer able to listen

to my mother’s voice through headphones

while the English subtitles are displayed at

the bottom of the screen.

The letter writing was the only way that my

grandparents were able to keep in regular

contact with family living overseas; the telephone was used for communication only occasionally

due to the cost associated with International telecommunication charges.

25 C'è posta per lei translates to “you've got mail”. 26 The Bea Maddock exhibition was on display at National Gallery of Victoria International from 14 February until 21 July 2013.

35

Chapter 3: Famiglia: a video installation and performance

36

“Art is a state of encounter.” (Bourriaud, 2002)

For my Honours solo exhibition held on Saturday 24 August 2013, I began with two options; to

present the videos within the gallery context with the addition of some of the items that belonged

to my family or the unconventional idea to have the event at my mother’s house – my childhood

home - with all of the objects in situ, in effect taking the exhibition into the family home. This could

also be risky, what if the presentation felt forced or uncomfortable for the viewer or my family?

Herein lay the dilemma; which objects would I select to take to the gallery space to best compliment

the installation? Would these objects have the same meaning if they were taken out of the context

of the home and placed into the gallery environment? Would this affect the authenticity of the

installation?

Figure 21 Elina Callipari-Walmsley's 21st birthday party, 6 July 1985, video still. Videographer: Francesco Pelle

The idea behind the video

installation and performance

took inspiration from my sister’s

21st birthday video, in that it is a

way of re-enacting or reliving a

sense of the family togetherness

that was experienced while my

grandparents and father were

still alive. In a sense, it became an

act of nostalgia to reinvent or recreate an environment where family and the viewer become

temporarily part of the extended family.

The event within the context of the family home, worked much better than if I had of simply placing

the objects with the gallery space. The authenticity of the space plus the additional elements of

video, food and the repetitive performative tasks allocated to members of my family as part of its

presentation recall French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of Relational Aesthetics27 (Bourriaud,

2002).

27 Relational Aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. Bourriaud defined the approach as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social

37

Figure 22 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Famiglia: a video installation and performance. 5:30-6:30pm, Saturday 24 August 2013, 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura.

The idea of experiential

performance was explored

through the act of participation.

In effect, the participation

became a kind of neo-

performance or pseudo

performance; an event grounded in the everyday, yet transformed through the repetitive nature

of experiential performance. Visitors to the event became part of the family environment from the

moment they walked in the front (or in some cases back) door. This was not simply the usual gallery

opening where people could come and go anonymously, it was by invitation only, not to be elitist,

but to keep the numbers to a manageable level and to allow interaction within the family

environment; in a sense becoming part of the extended family, albeit only for one evening.

Figure 23 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Famiglia: a video installation and performance, (lounge room installation view). 5:30-6:30pm, Saturday 24 August 2013, 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura.

The video installation consisted

of three flat screen televisions

set up on three small domestic

tables in the lounge room of my

mother’s home. Each screen

presented a different looped video. Screen one played the documentation of my performative art

making processes during the year; screen two, the family celebrations captured during the 1980s

and 1990s; screen three showed documentation of my mother, centred on food and Italian cultural

practices.

context, rather than an independent and private space." The artist can be more accurately viewed as the "catalyst" in relational art, rather than being at the centre.

38

The three videos created an interesting interplay between each other once they were installed side

by side on the televisions in the lounge room. A strange relationship occurred when they looped at

different times (the duration of each video was different to the other), causing random images and

sounds to come together. At one point, I drilled holes into the palm fruit balls in the performative

art making video while my mother was mixing biscuit batter with her electric mixer in the food

video.

Figure 24 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Mum and I making eggplant patties, video still.

There was also a fourth

screen; the television in

the kitchen played a

video of my mother and I

preparing and cooking

the eggplant patties and

cutuletti28 that were

eaten by guests at the

event. My mother and

aunties served up the

food in the kitchen, while the video played repeatedly reinforcing the idea of the making and

serving in real time while the celluloid version portrayed the cultural practice in past tense.

28 crumbed steak or schnitzel.

39

Video One: Chi fai?29 The performative art making process and documentation.

This series of self-documentary videos began by documenting myself in the process of collecting,

preparing and making the elements for my Kiefer inspired installation. The term chi fai or what are

you doing came to mind as I was documenting myself; I could not help but think what my

grandparents would say if they had witnessed me in the self –documentary process.

Figure 25 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Clearing out the hut, video still. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura.

In the videos I also documented the process of clearing out "the hut" on my parents’ property,

which I recently rediscovered and wrote about. The hut was once used as a granny flat or semi-

detachable dwelling which my father rescued from a family friend years ago. The friend purchased

a property that had a house and the aforementioned hut on it and did not have a use for it. My

father, forever the optimist, saw the potential in it and convinced my brother to arrange for its

relocation to our home property in Cowra Avenue. This proved to be quite an ordeal, but my father

argued that it could be a useful addition to the farm property and could be used as a place for the

seasonal workers to use for their morning break. He promised his friend, after the hut was

refurbished, they would meet for a cup of tea or a drink, unfortunately this did not ever eventuate

as my father passed away eleven years ago and the hut remained as it was, in need of some

attention.

29 Chi fai? Italian for “what are you doing?”

40

Figure 26 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Cuppa for Dad. The hut, 310 Cowra Avenue, MIldura.

The idea to use the hut as an installation space

came while I was considering my solo Honours

exhibition project. It had until recently been home

to hundreds of black plastic buckets, once used to

pick wine grapes. Hundreds of stacked buckets lay

horizontal, accumulating years of dirt and dust,

almost forgotten. My mother and I moved the

buckets, like neo-archaeologists reclaiming the

space for reuse. During the process of clearing out

the hut, we also found other materials which my

parents had used to farm snails30. The buckets

were moved and placed upside down into a nearby corrugated iron tank, which had been used to

house the snails after they had been picked off the vines and out of the garden. The snails (lumache

in Italian) were then sold to restaurants and Italian clubs in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, who

would serve up the delicacies for those who could palate their unique taste and texture.

Figure 27 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, wine flagons, dip tins and findings. The Hut, 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura.

During the process of clearing the

hut, I also found a pile of old glass

wine flagons abandoned beside

it, some half-buried, others in

clusters on the ground, most of

them still intact. Also unearthed

were old mangled, half rusted “dip tins”31, used in the process of drying sultanas.

30 My parents featured in an episode of the second series of the ABC TV cooking series, A Gondola on the Murray with local celebrity cook, Stefano de Pieri, titled, The 'Tour de Murray'. 31 The sultana grapes would be picked in the dip tins, dipped into a special drying solution then spread onto drying racks in the sun.

41

Figure 28 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, The Hut installation. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura.

Inside the hut, I

installed the palm

crosses created from

hours of laborious

making with the

addition the strings of

rosary bead palm balls;

lit ambiently with tea light candles, thus giving the space a reverential, dramatic-ness reminiscent

of the rituals of the Roman Catholic mass.

In rediscovering these objects and reclaiming the hut, I have felt a reconnection to my father. In my

previous exhibitions, at some stage of the making process, when I have started to feel

overwhelmed, I have felt my father’s presence, inspiring me to forge on and put aside my feelings

of self-doubt. During this process, I felt I honoured his memory and also connected with my family

home; the site for many family celebrations, milestones and memories, both good and bad.

42

Video Two: Celebrations - old home videos incorporating major life events

The first video in this series, my sister Elina's 21st birthday party was filmed by my Uncle Frank Pelle.

Uncle Frank was an amateur videographer and captured many family events on his camera.

Figure 29 Uncle Mick at Elina Callipari-Walmsley's 21st birthday party, 6 July 1985, video still. Videographer: Francesco Pelle

Watching the video

filmed in the 1980s for

the first time in many

years was like a ‘blast

from the past’; it

showcased the fashion,

hairstyles and music of

the era. The poor quality

of the videotape creates

a low buzzing noise and flickers the images across the screen. Central to the video is the opening

footage of my large extended family all sitting down to eat dinner outside under the veranda at my

parents’ house. Several tables had been butted together to form an extra-long dining table, fit for

an Italian feast. Uncle Frank filmed the length of the table, zooming in on individuals, focussing his

gaze at relatives while they were in the process of eating and interacting with each other. It

captures the noise created by a cacophony of voices, clinking glasses and cutlery and slamming

doors. The filming resumes inside the house around the dining room board table where my family

crowded in to sing “Happy Birthday” to my sister, everyone held a glass to wish a toast to my sister’s

good health. Later the cousins gather in the lounge room to watch a recorded videotape of

Countdown32 and dance and sing along to the music playing.

32 Countdown was a long-running popular weekly Australian music television show broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 8 November 1974 until 19 July 1987. It was created by Executive Producer Michael Shrimpton, producer/director Robbie Weekes and record producer and music journalist Ian "Molly" Meldrum

43

Figure 30 “The Boys” proposing a toast on Michael and Christine Callipari's wedding day, 15 December 1990. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. Video still. Videographer: O-Line Video

My brother Michael and sister-in-law Christine's wedding was filmed by professional company O-

Line video. It is a twenty minute video of highlights from the day accompanied to some lively Greek

music, a reference to my sister-in-law’s heritage. It starts at my parents’ home where my brother

and his groomsmen gather for a celebratory shot of Galliano for “forza” or courage before the big

day begins.

44

Figure 31 Mum, Nonna Domenica, Nanna Lena, Mimi Cufari and Nonno Francesco, Elina and Bryan Walmsley's wedding day, 19 December 1992. 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. Video still. Videographer: Frank Cufari

My sister Elina and brother-in-

law Bryan's wedding day video

was filmed by my cousin Frank

Cufari. Frank was also a keen

amateur videographer and

offered his services for the day.

In it he managed to capture a

lively conversation between my paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather.

Figure 32 Nonna Domenica Cufari's 88th birthday celebration. Indi Avenue, Red Cliffs. Video still. Videographer: Michael Callipari.

My maternal grandmother or

Nonna's 88th birthday

celebration was filmed at the

home of my grandparents by my

brother Michael. The video

begins by zooming in to the

birthday cake, the words “Happy

88th Birthday Mum” have been

written in icing on top of the chocolate cake. My grandparents sit at the table surrounded by their

children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The sound created by the gathering of my

extended family is both noisy and joyous.

My sister Elina filmed my 25th birthday and engagement party celebrations at my parents’ house.

In it she captures a somewhat smaller and quieter occasion with just immediate family present.

45

Figure 33 Dad, Mum and I. Luci and Anthony Marcuzzo's wedding day, 18 April 1998, 310 Cowra Avenue, Mildura. Video still. Videographer: O-Line Video

Professional company O-Line

Video also filmed my own

wedding day. It started by

filming the site of our soon to

be new house, then moved on

to the home of my sister-in-

law and featured interviews

with my husband, his sister

and best man. Following this the video moved to my parents’ house, featuring some sentimental

moments with my mother and father, a funny conversation between the videographer and my

bridesmaids, then on to the church and the actual wedding ceremony. The video also captured a

humorous moment when the choir I was once a member of, sang with my husband’s uncle (Zio

Angelo) who travelled from Italy for the occasion.

46

Video Three: Hai mangiato? Food at the heart of the home and its importance in

cultural practice.

The idea behind the documentation videos was to do a number of things: to document cultural

practices as significant and in doing so demonstrate their historical importance by deliberately

preserving the documentation as archival material.

Figure 34 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Making biscuits with Christian and Mum. Video still.

The growing, collecting, cooking and preserving of food is an extremely important part of the Italian

psyche and within my own work. Through video and photography I recorded my mother picking

tomatoes and sauce making, baking a provincial biscuit recipe particular to her paese or hometown;

the hanging of salami33 and the entire traditional Italian bread making process. These traditions are

still practiced by my family today and entrenched in my memory.

33 This year was the first year my mother purchased her salami already made and prepared by a local butcher; in previous years we had always made our own or helped my Uncle or other relatives make theirs. The salami making ritual is usually a weekend long affair in winter time, with many processes to achieve a good quality sausage.

47

Figure 35 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, My brother Bruno checking the salami hanging from the garage ceiling.

Food is an important reference to the tradition of Italian migrants, as is growing and making their

own food, which has enabled them to be self-sufficient. The cultural practice (which is not just

restricted to Italian families) of utilising fresh produce and transforming it into something more

sustainable, which is able to be stored, then consumed at a later date, is derived from the absolute

necessity of living a hardscrabble existence off the

land rather than saving the planet. But in 21st century

Australia, these practices remain important because

they do resonate with contemporary concerns,

affirmed cultural identity and provide rituals that

reinforce family and community relationships.

Figure 36 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Bread in the wood fired oven or forno at my mother's home.

49

Chapter 4: Memory and “postmemory”

50

Can a person’s memory live on through the objects they leave behind? (Callipari-Marcuzzo, 2011)

The investigation of objects belonging to members of my family, serve as a reminder of the

mementos kept after loved ones leave us. This investigation also included the actual objects and

those remade or reinterpreted as a type of memorial. Objects I have referenced include those that

belonged to my grandparents: rosary beads, clothes, shoes, glasses, my father’s playing cards and

prayer cards.

Installation art therefore differs from traditional media (sculpture, painting, photography, video) in

that it addresses the viewer directly as a literal presence in the space. Rather than imagining the

viewer as a pair of disembodied eyes that survey the work from a distance, installation art

presupposes an embodied viewer whose senses of touch, smell and sound are as heightened as

their sense of vision. This insistence on the literal presence of the viewer is arguably the key

characteristic of installation art. (Bishop, 2005)

Figure 37 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Modiano Napoletane Italian playing cards installation, Presenza exhibition, November 2011, The Art Vault, Mildura.

51

Figure 38 Christian Boltanski, Prende la parole (installation view), 2005, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, 3 September - 15 October 2005. Image accessed via Marian Goodman Gallery website: http://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/2005-09-03_christian-boltanski/

The resonant, emotional power of Christian Boltanski’s work is largely based on the association that

the viewer brings to his installations. Our propensity to keep traces – clothes, documents and

memorabilia – of the people who have affected our lives long after their death, forms the

investigative basis of Boltanski’s work. The poverty of Boltanski’s materials is linked to Arte Povera34:

notions of survival and social experience that stem from concepts explored by Joseph Beuys.

Autobiographical connotations, indictive of the artist’s Jewish-Catholic upbringing, often emerge.

(Hodge & Anson, 2004)

Boltanski is able to elevate what may seem ordinary objects through his use of installation, into

something to be revered or almost holy.

34 Arte Povera - "poor art" or "impoverished art" - was the most significant and influential avant-garde movement to emerge in Europe in the 1960s. It grouped the work of around a dozen Italian artists whose most distinctly recognizable trait was their use of commonplace materials that might evoke a pre-industrial age, such as earth, rocks, clothing, paper and rope. Their work marked a reaction against the modernist abstract painting that had dominated European art in the 1950s, hence much of the group's work is sculptural. But the group also rejected American Minimalism, in particular what they perceived as its enthusiasm for technology. In this respect Arte Povera echoes Post-Minimalist tendencies in American art of the 1960s. But in its opposition to modernism and technology, and its evocations of the past, locality and memory, the movement is distinctly Italian - http://www.theartstory.org/movement-arte-povera.htm

52

It is not about telling the truth, but making the truth felt. I try to tell short parables, not with words,

but with signs, images and sounds. The little stories enable the hearer or the viewer to ask a question

being an artist has saved me in a way, as it’s a sort of slow, wild psychoanalysis. Little by little, you

discover things about yourself. And you dare mention things you didn’t before. Each of us creates

our own sort of mythology, a sort of dream life, in a way, an emblematic life. (Boltanski, 2010)

The interaction and participatory possibilities of installation art and its transformation from a

spectatorial space is what interests and excites me about the possibilities within this medium of art

making.

My work has a definite Christian influence, particularly in the idea – already in the Jewish religion –

of uniqueness, the importance of each being, an of love. To refer again to objects, I’ve created works

that are piles of clothes, like at a flea market. You can buy them and put them in a bag. It’s a sort of

work. (Boltanski, 2010)

Figure 39 Christian Boltanski, Personnes installation view, Monumenta 2010 Grand Palais, Paris 13 January - 21 February 2010. Photo: didier plowy © Monumenta / MCC

In this respect, I find a

correlation to that of

Boltanski, through his use

of discarded objects, he has

created a sense of respect

and reverence for the

object.

Marianne Hirsch’s theory of ‘postmemory’, describes the relationship that the “generation after”

bears to the personal, collective, and cultural trauma of those who came before - to experiences

they “remember” only by means of the stories, images, and behaviours among which they grew

up. But these experiences were transmitted to them so deeply and affectively as to seem to

constitute memories in their own right. This idea of ‘postmemory’ has also been associated with

the work of Boltanski. Hirch’s theory has resonance for me, which is evident through my past

exhibition explorations into the objects belonging to members of my family (as previously

discussed).

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Furthermore, Boltanski also commented;

The more you display someone’s objects, the more you display their absence. The more you try to

show someone’s memory, the more you pinpoint their absence. As soon as you preserve something,

you kill it. I think that’s why photos are always linked to the idea of death. You preserve a moment,

but as soon as the photo is taken, the moment is over. You can display all someone’s objects you like

– they won’t disappear – but they’ll only be images of objects. (Boltanski, 2010)

Figure 40 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, In Memoriam: queste scarpe, 2012, shoes, artificial flowers and beads, dimensions variable. whitecubemildura, Stefano's Cafe Bakery, 27 Deakin Avenue, Mildura.

This idea of an object belonging to a family member

who is now deceased and revered by those left behind

also interests me. It is as though the person’s presence

has remained within the object and through possession

of the object, the beholder has in a sense, a piece of the

person who has left that object behind.

My 2012 installation In Memoriam: queste scarpe35

(pictured) was created for whitecubemildura36, incorporated the “good” shoes my maternal

grandfather wore on his journey from Italy to Australia in 1951. The shoes symbolise a new

beginning; to cross over the threshold and embark on a new life in a foreign land with so much

promise. The shoes incorporated beads from a plant which grows in my mother’s garden, once

were used to make rosary beads; and in this context filled the shoes with hope, belief and courage.

35 Queste scarpe is Italian for “these shoes”. 36 whitecubemildura was established to provide an unusual, low stress, fun and creative approach to exhibiting art in public spaces. Three micro galleries each measuring approximately 30 x 30 x 30 cm have been placed in different locations throughout the Mildura CBD.

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Abballati, abballati37: story telling through music and song

While working on the Famiglia video installation and performance at my mother’s home, I

discovered the record collection, mostly Italian folk songs, which belonged to my maternal

grandparents. My mother inherited their record player and records after my grandfather died; I

was surprised by how many records they had in their collection. Mum and I listened to them on her

record player and she relived some of the memories she had shared with her parents centred

around music. This reminiscing with my mother also revealed stories about my mother’s family and

their love of music.

Figure 41 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, My grandparents' record player was given to my mother after my grandfather (Nonno Francesco) died in 2010.

37 “Abballati, abballati” is Calabrian Italian dialect and roughly translates to “let’s dance, let’s dance”, it is sometimes called out during the traditional dance of the tarantella to encourage those sitting to get up and dance.

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Calabrisella Mia: an enactment

Figure 42 Luci Callipari- Marcuzzo, Calabrisella Mia, 2013, video still.

Calabrisella Mia is an endurance performance and video

installation. It centres on the enactment of a traditional Calabrian

folk song favoured by all my grandparents. I recently discovered

that both sets of my grandparents enjoyed singing this song (and

other folk songs from their villages).

It is not about telling the truth, but making the truth felt

(Boltanski, 2010)

Re-enactment and enactment are two separate yet similar ideas;

a re-enactment is drawn from an original event in time and space,

whereas an enactment is an idea or interpretation of an event

without the need to be a factual, rather it is more akin to the idea

or feeling of the original event without having to be a slave to detail.

The performance attempted to reconnect with my grandparents. Through the transformation of

my appearance by clothing myself in my maternal grandmother’s (Nonna Domenica) clothes, and

with the addition of temporary plaited hairpieces, I recreated the hairstyle favoured by so many

1950s Italian migrant women.

Both sets of grandparents would sing while they worked on the land to entertain themselves and

to help pass time more quickly. At family celebrations, they would join in the singing and dance the

traditional tarantella38 of their homeland.

However in 1960, my maternal Uncle Bruno died tragically in a tractor accident at the age of sixteen.

His death came as a shock to the family, which plunged my grandparents into deep despair and

mourning. There would be no more singing or dancing after that tragic event for many, many years.

38 The term tarantella groups together a number of different folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time (sometimes 18/8 or 4/4), accompanied by tambourines.

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My grandmother did not ever fully recover from this event, and wore dark coloured garments as a

sign of mourning until her death in 1999.

The six hour endurance performance transitioned from happy to sad. The performance began with

me wearing the dress my maternal grandmother wore on her trip to Australia, of Italian made red

and black check, fashioned in the 1950s while sang happily along to the Calabrian folk song,

Calabrisella, which played on the record player nearby.

Figure 43 The dresses belonging to my grandmother (Nonna Domenica) which are worn during the Calabrisella Mia performance, now belong to my mother Anna.

During the performance I communicated only through song. Visitors and viewers to the event were

advised on entry that I would only converse through song, with the words to the song printed on a

room sheet for those wanting to join in.

The feeling of the performance slowly moved to a more sombre note when I finally revealed the

black dress (significant for mourning) that my grandmother wore to my parents’ wedding, the year

following my Uncle’s death. The performance represented the joy of moving to an exciting new life

in a new country to that of mourning the loss of a son, no more singing, celebration or happiness.

The performance ended in silence, exhausted from six hours of vocal and physical endurance.

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Figure 44 Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Calabrisella Mia, 2013, video still

The idea of the dichotomy of two voices; mine

and that of my two grandmothers was also

expressed through a video installation in the

next room, where I filmed myself in another

dress which belonged to my maternal

grandmother. In the video I again sung

Calabrisella in a more lively way, in all sorts of

recreated imagined scenarios; cooking in the

kitchen, picking olives, picking tomatoes,

pottering in the room where my mother

makes her traditional wood fired Italian bread and tending my mother’s garden. The sound of the

video installation was loud enough to carry into the room I was performing live in, and where the

two voices - the video and my own - merged into a duet.

The Calabrisella performance takes inspiration from New York-based Serbian performance artist

Marina Abramovic who for over four decades, has explored the relationship between performer

and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.

Abramovic’s use of time is a crucial element of this genre. By slowing down, lengthening, or

repeating actions normally unexamined, a long durational work encourages both its performers

and audience to step outside of traditional conceptions of time and examine what this experience

means to them.

Figure 45 Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, 14 March to 31 May 2010, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: 16 Miles of String. Image accessed from the 16 Miles of String blog http://www.16miles.com/2010/03/marina-abramovic-at-museum-of-modern.html

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"I test the limits of myself in order to transform myself," she says, "but I also take the energy from

the audience and transform it. It goes back to them in a different way. This is why people in the

audience often cry or become angry or whatever. A powerful performance will transform everyone

in the room." (Abramovic, 2010)

In a similar way, American interdisciplinary artist Martha McDonald’s work features handcrafted

costumes and objects that are activated through gesture, singing and autobiographical narrative.

“The Weeping Dress was a performance and installation arising from research of Victorian mourning

rituals. During a woman's first year of mourning, nothing she wore could reflect the light. That

meant wearing wool bombazine or crepe, which didn't hold the plant-based dyes so color ran from

the fabric in the rain and heat, staining her body. I am fascinated by how this public performance

of grief was experienced in such a private and corporeal way. I constructed a period mourning dress

out of black crepe paper that I activated in performance to release the fugitive dye and leave a stain,

or trace behind.” (McDonald, 2012)

Figure 46 Martha McDonald, The Weeping Dress performance, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, March 10 - April 21, 2011. Photo: Christian Capurro. Image accessed via http://marthalmcdonald.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-weeping-dress.html

Watching the performance via the Craft Victoria

website, and seeing the water droplets slowly

transform McDonald’s appearance was a reminder

of how the enactment of an idea can activate such

powerful emotion in the viewer, something I aimed

to do within my own endurance performance.

The transformation of the dress and the stain it

leaves behind suggest presence, absence and our

own impermanence. (Craft Victoria, 2011)

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Conclusion

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In completing my Honours year of research and resulting artwork, I feel I have been successful in

my experimentation with installation, performance and relational art.

However, the surface has only just been scratched for possible future study and projects with my

family providing the impetus and inspiration for my arts practise for some years to come.

One possible new work references the videos in my parents’ collection acquired from their time as

video shop proprietors from 1984 until 1996. The video shop was my first job, at the age of sixteen,

I would walk to ‘the shop’ every day after school.

Figure 47 Mum's video collection

The project, tentatively titled, Rewind the VCR:

family video collection, would feature a television

and video player. The viewer would be able to

choose a video from the collection to watch, with

the interaction also documented on video.

The videos my parents favoured were mostly Italian

films or featured Italian actors. They enjoyed

watching the films both at home and at the shop.

Some of the favourites in my parents’ video

collection include; the San Remo Italian Song

Festival39, Romulus and Remus40, Mamma (starring

Italian opera singer Beniamino Gigli), the comedic

action and spaghetti western films of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. These films were not only

popular with my parents but loved by the rest of the family also. The Great Caruso41, and Il Brigante

Musolino42 were also popular films with my parents.

39 Sanremo Italian Song Festival is still a popular Italian song contest, held annually in the city of Sanremo in Italy, which consists of a competition of previously unreleased songs. It was the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest. 40 Romulus and Remus were twins raised by a wolf; the brothers went on to establish what became known as Rome. 41 The Great Caruso was a biographical film starring Mario Lanza in the title role was a highly fictionalized biography of the life of tenor Enrico Caruso. 42 Il Brigante Musolino was inspired by the life of the Calabrian brigand and folk hero Giuseppe Musolino. It was said that Musolino was seen by his countrymen as a symbol of the injustice Calabria was facing at the time. As an elusive fugitive, always managing to escape traps, Musolino stirred the imagination of

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Since signing up to Facebook43 in 2008, I discovered a whole host of relatives I did not know existed.

Given my interest in genealogy, it has enabled me to get in contact with as many potential

“relatives” across the world in the way only social media can, quickly and superficially.

This reconnection with relatives and in a sense reactivation of the Italian side of my family tree has

opened up possibilities for future travel, research and art projects.

Figure 48 Mum and Christian making sauce

My ambition to make

challenging new work has

only been strengthened

from this intensive year of

art making, in spite of the

sacrifices I have made for its

completion. While the body

of work I have created has

been both time consuming

and challenging. I have juggled my work, home and artistic life sometimes successfully and at other

times, less so. But I feel the exploration of my family and the documentation of Italian Australian

cultural practices is an important one, of which I have deliberately and consciously involved my son,

so that he may remember and pass on these important traditions to his own children.

My desire to pursue further study and research have been reignited. At present, I am considering

my application into the Masters Degree by Research program. At this point of my study, I have so

much stimulus which has been generated by my Honours year that I feel it necessary to continue

this research in a more considered and explorative way, which would again include performative

aspects within my arts practise.

many people in Italy and in short order he became a legend throughout Italy and abroad. He became the subject of many Calabrian folk tales and popular songs. 43 Facebook is an online social networking service. Its name stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some American university administrations to help students get to know each other

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During the final week of the completion of my exegesis, my cousin Domenic died suddenly and

unexpectedly at his home at the relatively young age of fifty. His death has caused great distress

within my mother’s family and we are still coming to terms with how incomprehensibly and

unfathomably cruel life can sometimes be. Domenic featured in the Celebrations video as was one

of the groomsmen in my brother’s bridal party, so I see it only fitting to mention him in my closing

remarks. For my mother and her siblings, the memories of losing their brother sixty-two years ago

in such sudden and tragic circumstances have resurfaced.

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References Coppola, F., The Fabric of my Homeland [essay]

Galimberti, J., 2013. A Third-worldist Art? Germano Celant’s Invention of Arte Povera. Association of Art Historians.

Gibbons, J., 2007. Contemporary Art and Memory. I.B. Taurius & Co Ltd, London.

Giles, J., A Passion Restored: An Interview with Rosemary Mangiamele, Metro Magazine 170, pp. 83-85, ATOM.

Hirsch, M., 2008. The Generation of Postmemory. Poetics Today 29:1 (Spring 2008). Porter Institute of Poetics and Semiotics.

Holman, M., Arte Povera 1968, 2011. MAMbo Bologna 24 September to 26 December [review], | Art Monthly, London, Edition 351, pp. 22-23, November

Koolhaas, R., 2002. Junkspace. October, Vol. 100, Obsolescence. (Spring, 2002), pp. 175-190.

Kuspit, D., 2003. Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art: Part 1. [Online] Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts. Spring 2003 Vol. 2 No. 1. Available at: http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v2n1/gallery/kuspit_d/reconsidering.htm

Lampugnani, R., 2006. Comedy and Humour, Stereotypes and the Italian Migrant in

Mangiamele’s Ninety Nine Per Cent. Flinders University Languages Group Online Review.

Lumley, R., Arte Povera. Tate Publishing, London.

Mateer, J., 2001. 7 Pavilions, 7 Effigies & 13 Days: Meditation on a work by Domenico de Clario. Meanjin 1.2001 - Under Construction, pp. 208-217

Moliterno, G., Giorgio Mangiamele: Visionary of the Australian Screen. Metro Magazine 170, pp. 75-79. ATOM.

Potts, A., 2008. Disencumbered Objects. October 124, Spring 2008, pp. 169–189. October

Magazine, Ltd. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rando, G., n.d. From Catania to Carlton: Italian Australian Migration and the Cinema of Giorgio

Mangiamele. Metro Magazine 170. ATOM

Salomone, L., & Thwaites, V., 2013. Lee Salomone: Hirsute collection [exhibition catalogue]. April 2013

Semin, D. & Garb, T. & Kuspit, D., 1997. Christian Boltanski. Phaidon, London.

The Giorgio Mangiamele Collection. 2011. [videorecording] Directed by Giorgio Mangiamele; curated and remastered by the National Film and Sound Archive; extras filmed and edited by Ronin Films, Canberra.

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Bibliography Abramovic, M., 2010. Interview: Marina Abramovic [Interview] (3 October 2010).

Anon., 1966. "THE WEIRD MOB'-ON FILM. Australian Women's Weekly, p. 8.

Bishop, C., 2005. Introduction: Installation Art and Experience. In: Installation Art. London: Tate Publishing, p. 6.

Boltanski, C., 2010. Les Vies Impossibles [Interview] 2010.

Bond, T., 2007. Anselm Kiefer Aperiatur Terra: Recent Work Education kit. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Bourriaud, N., 2002. Relational Aesthetics. France: Les presses du reel.

Callipari-Marcuzzo, L., 2011. s.l.:s.n.

Coppola, F., 2012. Chasing the Disappeared [Interview] 2012.

Coppola, F., 2012. Mother Tongue (artwork statement) [Interview] 2012.

Craft Victoria, 2011. Martha McDonald: The Weeping Dress. [Online] Available at: http://www.craft.org.au/See/exhibitions/past_exhibitions/martha-mcdonald-the-weeping-dress/ [Accessed 21 September 2013].

Culotta, N. & O'Grady, J., 1957. They're a Weird Mob. 10th ed. Sydney: Halstead Press.

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Appendices

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Famiglia: a video installation and performance statement

Presence( noun)

an invisible spirit felt to be nearby

Can a person's presence live on through the objects they leave behind?

Sentiment, memory and spirituality are common themes within my arts practise. Through the

primary use of installation, I am investigating objects belonging to family members, as a sort of

reminder of the mementos we keep after loved ones leave us.

The body of work for my Honours year will make reference to my Italian-Australian Roman-Catholic

heritage to which I feel inextricably linked. While the influence of my family’s migration story, like

many post-WWII migrants her family built a new life with not much more than their faith in each

other and god. Both parents migrated to Australia from Italy in the 1950s as young adults with their

respective families. Their desire for a better life allowed them to build a modest life for their family

from the land. They immersed themselves in the familiar and clung to the traditions and customs

from their homeland.

Also of importance in my work is the aspect of food and the cultural practices surrounding it, the

ritualistic custom in Winter of ‘killing the pigs’ to make salami, etc., making tomato sauce, the

laborious process of making Italian bread and biscuits are all entrenched in my memory. These

traditions are still practiced by my family today.

Food is an important reference to the tradition of Italian migrants, as is growing and making their

own food, which enables them to be self-sufficient. The cultural practice (which is not just restricted

to Italian families) of utilising fresh produce and transforming it into something more sustainable,

which is able to be stored, then consumed at a later date is a tangible one.

As a child, my parents would take our family to Italian mass every Sunday, where we would listen,

sing and pray in her parents’ native Italian tongue. Once a year we would attend the annual Feast

of Our Lady of the Rosary at Red Cliffs and participate in the procession through the local streets.

We also visited other feast days, San Rocco at Buronga and the Madonna del Carmelo at Swan Hill.

My mother and father collected the prayer cards given out at these events; some were also gifted

by relatives who had attended other feast days.

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The video installation:

Three screens focus on Family Celebrations, Food Cultural practices and my process on making

artwork for my Honours year or Performances.

The “performance”:

A gathering of family and friends perform repetitive gestures all associated with memories of my

childhood; my mother continuously serving and offering food, while my good friend clears the

plates away, my brother-in-law serving the wine continuously filling the glasses, my sister at the

record player making sure the Calabrian folk song, Calabrisella continues to play. In doing all of

these repetitive actions all are felt welcome as they would have been in the homes of my family.

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Famiglia: a video installation and performance documentation photographs

Figure 49 Exterior of house lit up for event. Photos: Daniel Downing

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Figure 50 Family photos on hall stand near entrance. Photo: Daniel Downing

Figure 51 Looking back from lounge room to entry. Photo: Daniel Downing

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Figure 52 Guests gathering around the table. Photo: Daniel Downing

Figure 53 Bottles of Callipari wine (owned by my Uncle and his son) and dried fruit made by my mother were offered to guests. Photo: Daniel Downing

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Figure 54 Eating and serving drinks. Photo: Daniel Downing

Figure 55 Mum serving up the food while the video of her making and cooking the food plays on the television in the kitchen. Photo: Daniel Downing

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Figure 56 My mother, friend Alicia, brother-in-law Bryan and sister Elina all had a role to play within the performative element of the event. Photo: Daniel Downing

Figure 57 Looking back into the dining room from the lounge room where the audience in the lounge room where the videos were played. Photo: Daniel Downing

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Figure 58 The three television screens playing the video installation. Photo: Daniel Downing.

Figure 59 Some of the audience sit and watch the videos in the lounge room. Photo: Daniel Downing

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Figure 60 Guests linger in the in-between space between the dining and lounge rooms.

Figure 61 Among the guests were my two Uncles (my father's brothers) who attended the evening and added to the family atmosphere.

Famiglia: memory, migration, spirituality and cultural practice as a first generation Australian

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