An Italian Wedding

2023

Digital prints on organic canvas, polyester fabric

An Italian Wedding highlights issues of migrant displacement, isolation, widowhood and bereavement, experiences shared by many Italian women living away from home in post-World War II, Far North Queensland. Sourced from my parents original wedding ceremony photographed in Innisfail (1961), the sentimental and nostalgic images have been enlarged to emphasize intricate matrimonial traditions, yet are masked with fabric to symbolise a mourner’s narrative and the Italian ritual of wearing black after loss. After becoming a widow, she immediately wore dark colours to symbolise and express her mourning; a cultural practice that perpetuates sorrow through clothing. Often gendered in Italians, women are expected to perform more of the grieving process and also appears more intense from other nationalities. Navigating between issues of migration, culture and trauma, the series questions the quality of my mother’s ageing experience as a non-English speaking woman, as she continues to struggle with feelings of grief, loneliness and regret. It also subtly acknowledges the history of Australia’s forgotten generation of 12000 Italian migrant brides, who married by proxy and then emigrated to meet for the first time, their Australian-based Italian husbands.