Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo
Based near Mildura in North-West Victoria, Australia, I am a multi-disciplinary artist, mother, researcher, arts worker, curator and writer. Born to Calabrian migrants at Mildura in North-West Victoria, my arts practise explores notions of belief, religion, spirituality, Italian cultural practices and customs, the Italian immigrant experience, a woman’s “place” in traditional Italian-Australian society, memory and family relationships.
Utilising modes of narrative enquiry and autoethnography, my multidisciplinary arts practice-based research investigates, interprets and translates the experiences of Calabrian settlers to North West Victoria (Australia) in a contemporary visual art and sociological context. Notions of belief and religious practices, gender roles and stereotypes, family relationships, nostalgia, memory and postmemory , cultural loss and preservation are also explored in my work.
Through the methodology of live art performance, my work attempts to actively engage with my familial and feminine history. An integral part of my practice-led research is my self-transformation into an imagined version of my Calabrian grandmothers. During these enactments, I make artefacts utilising traditional women’s modes of making – sewing, embroidery and crochet. The work is a manifestation of the hopes, dreams and desires of migrant women and strives to honour their voices which were not always heard due to the dominant gender roles within the Calabrian diaspora.
In 2017, I completed a Master of Visual Arts (Research) at La Trobe University, Mildura campus, with my project 'Tracing the threads of the Calabrian diaspora to North-West Victoria. Explorations through performance, video and relational art’.
Supervisors: Dr Vincent Alessi and Danielle Hobbs
Utilising modes of narrative enquiry and autoethnography, my multidisciplinary arts practice-based research investigates, interprets and translates the experiences of Calabrian settlers to North West Victoria (Australia) in a contemporary visual art and sociological context. Notions of belief and religious practices, gender roles and stereotypes, family relationships, nostalgia, memory and postmemory , cultural loss and preservation are also explored in my work.
Through the methodology of live art performance, my work attempts to actively engage with my familial and feminine history. An integral part of my practice-led research is my self-transformation into an imagined version of my Calabrian grandmothers. During these enactments, I make artefacts utilising traditional women’s modes of making – sewing, embroidery and crochet. The work is a manifestation of the hopes, dreams and desires of migrant women and strives to honour their voices which were not always heard due to the dominant gender roles within the Calabrian diaspora.
In 2017, I completed a Master of Visual Arts (Research) at La Trobe University, Mildura campus, with my project 'Tracing the threads of the Calabrian diaspora to North-West Victoria. Explorations through performance, video and relational art’.
Supervisors: Dr Vincent Alessi and Danielle Hobbs
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Papers by Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo
Italian Australian scholar, Gerardo Papalia stated; “immigrants themselves created their own little homeland within domestic walls. However, this homeland was fabricated with crystallised memories and inhabited with behaviour patterns deriving from what they had left.”3
Based on this premise, the aim of my arts practice-based research is to investigate the experience of Calabrian migrants from the Aspromonte region of the province of Reggio Calabria (with a focus on the towns of Platì and Natile) who left Italy in the 1950s (in some cases earlier). Through scholarly articles, books, personal interviews and my own experiences, I will explore how these migrants transported a microcosm of their culture and cultural practices particular to their region to their new home in Mildura, in Victoria’s North-West.
Through the modes of narrative enquiry, autoethnography, and traditional methods of making and women's work, my multidisciplinary arts practice-based research investigates, interprets and translates the experiences of Calabrian settlers to Victoria’s North-West, in a contemporary visual art and sociological context.
Notions of belief and religious practices, gender roles and stereotypes, family relationships, nostalgia, cultural loss and preservation are also explored in my work.
My research also explores broadly the global experience of migration, the factors which led to the Italian migrants to Australia, cultural loss and preservation and nostalgia in second and subsequent generations.
1 Italianità: sense of Italianness or Italianism.
2 Paesane: townspeople
3 Gerardo Papalia, "From 'terrone' to 'wog': 'post' colonial perspectives on Italian immigration into Australia." Italian Historical Society Journal 11, no.2 (2003): 7.
28 & 29 April 2017, 7 Chaffey Avenue, Mildura, Victoria. 3500
****
It may be said that families dispersed for social or political reasons to different parts of the globe were like satellites or capsules of culture, who then became the main custodians of a cultural preservation, where time more or less stood still. Like other recently arrived migrants, they immersed themselves in the familiar and clung to the traditions and customs of their homeland. By clinging to their culture, it was also a way to preserve it and by placing more importance on cultural attributes because of their perception that back in their place of origin, the same thing was happening.
Based on this premise, the avenue of my research is to investigate the experience of Calabrian migrants from the Aspromonte region of the province of Reggio Calabria who left Italy in the 1950s (in some cases earlier) to make a new life for themselves and their families in other countries, and took with them a microcosm of their culture and cultural practices particular to their region at their time of departure.
My multidisciplinary practice-based research explores traditional methods of “making” and “women’s work”, interpreting and translating the experiences of Calabrian settlers to North-West Victoria in a contemporary visual art and sociological context. My arts practise also explores notions of belief, religion, spirituality, Italian cultural practices and customs, the Italian immigrant experience, a woman’s “place” in traditional Italian-Australian society, and
family. My work also explores the broader global experience of migration, the factors which led to the Italian migrants to Australia, cultural loss and preservation, and nostalgia in the second and subsequent generations.
The final display aimed to gather the many threads of inspiration which unravelled during the course of my Master’s candidacy (2015-2017) and weave together the stories of the Calabrian diaspora in North West Victoria.
Family is central to my arts practise.
Both sets of grandparents migrated to Australia in the 1950s.
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...
This paper is 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
Conference Presentations by Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo
This paper is included in the conference proceedings, Between Immigration and Historical Amnesia, the third international symposium of the Diaspore italiane: Italy in Movement conference series.
27-29 June 2019, Galata Museo del Mare, Genova, Italy.
Organized by Mu.MA - Istituzione Musei del Mare e delle Migrazioni, Genova; Co.As.It, Melbourne; John D. Calandra Italian American Institute - Queens College/CUNY, New York
Through the modes of narrative enquiry and
autoethnography, my multidisciplinary arts practice-based research investigates, interprets and translates the experiences of Calabrian settlers to Victoria’s North West, in a contemporary visual art and sociological context. Notions of belief and religious practices, gender roles and stereotypes, family relationships, nostalgia, and cultural loss and preservation are also explored in my work.
‘Tracciando fili del passato’ [Tracing Threads of the Past], is an ongoing series of live art performances, installations and video explorations, which incorporate the transformation of self into an imagined version of my Calabrian grandmothers. During these enactments, I make artefacts utilising traditional women’s modes of making – sewing, embroidery and crochet. These activities are chosen in order to highlight the significance of women’s handmade craft work, which were once an important aspect of family relationships, passed from mother to daughter. The work is a manifestation of their hopes and dreams and strives to honour the women migrants whose voices were not always heard on account of dominant gender roles within the Calabrian diaspora of 1950s, 60s and 70s Australia.
This paper was part of the 'Emotions of Cultures/ Cultures of Emotions: Comparative Perspectives' conference. 11–13 DECEMBER 2017, at THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The conference encouraged discussion across disciplines, cultures and historical periods, with a particular focus on broadening emotions history beyond its hitherto largely Western context.
Articles by Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo
Italian Australian scholar, Gerardo Papalia stated; “immigrants themselves created their own little homeland within domestic walls. However, this homeland was fabricated with crystallised memories and inhabited with behaviour patterns deriving from what they had left.”3
Based on this premise, the aim of my arts practice-based research is to investigate the experience of Calabrian migrants from the Aspromonte region of the province of Reggio Calabria (with a focus on the towns of Platì and Natile) who left Italy in the 1950s (in some cases earlier). Through scholarly articles, books, personal interviews and my own experiences, I will explore how these migrants transported a microcosm of their culture and cultural practices particular to their region to their new home in Mildura, in Victoria’s North-West.
Through the modes of narrative enquiry, autoethnography, and traditional methods of making and women's work, my multidisciplinary arts practice-based research investigates, interprets and translates the experiences of Calabrian settlers to Victoria’s North-West, in a contemporary visual art and sociological context.
Notions of belief and religious practices, gender roles and stereotypes, family relationships, nostalgia, cultural loss and preservation are also explored in my work.
My research also explores broadly the global experience of migration, the factors which led to the Italian migrants to Australia, cultural loss and preservation and nostalgia in second and subsequent generations.
1 Italianità: sense of Italianness or Italianism.
2 Paesane: townspeople
3 Gerardo Papalia, "From 'terrone' to 'wog': 'post' colonial perspectives on Italian immigration into Australia." Italian Historical Society Journal 11, no.2 (2003): 7.
28 & 29 April 2017, 7 Chaffey Avenue, Mildura, Victoria. 3500
****
It may be said that families dispersed for social or political reasons to different parts of the globe were like satellites or capsules of culture, who then became the main custodians of a cultural preservation, where time more or less stood still. Like other recently arrived migrants, they immersed themselves in the familiar and clung to the traditions and customs of their homeland. By clinging to their culture, it was also a way to preserve it and by placing more importance on cultural attributes because of their perception that back in their place of origin, the same thing was happening.
Based on this premise, the avenue of my research is to investigate the experience of Calabrian migrants from the Aspromonte region of the province of Reggio Calabria who left Italy in the 1950s (in some cases earlier) to make a new life for themselves and their families in other countries, and took with them a microcosm of their culture and cultural practices particular to their region at their time of departure.
My multidisciplinary practice-based research explores traditional methods of “making” and “women’s work”, interpreting and translating the experiences of Calabrian settlers to North-West Victoria in a contemporary visual art and sociological context. My arts practise also explores notions of belief, religion, spirituality, Italian cultural practices and customs, the Italian immigrant experience, a woman’s “place” in traditional Italian-Australian society, and
family. My work also explores the broader global experience of migration, the factors which led to the Italian migrants to Australia, cultural loss and preservation, and nostalgia in the second and subsequent generations.
The final display aimed to gather the many threads of inspiration which unravelled during the course of my Master’s candidacy (2015-2017) and weave together the stories of the Calabrian diaspora in North West Victoria.
Family is central to my arts practise.
Both sets of grandparents migrated to Australia in the 1950s.
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...
This paper is 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
This paper is included in the conference proceedings, Between Immigration and Historical Amnesia, the third international symposium of the Diaspore italiane: Italy in Movement conference series.
27-29 June 2019, Galata Museo del Mare, Genova, Italy.
Organized by Mu.MA - Istituzione Musei del Mare e delle Migrazioni, Genova; Co.As.It, Melbourne; John D. Calandra Italian American Institute - Queens College/CUNY, New York
Through the modes of narrative enquiry and
autoethnography, my multidisciplinary arts practice-based research investigates, interprets and translates the experiences of Calabrian settlers to Victoria’s North West, in a contemporary visual art and sociological context. Notions of belief and religious practices, gender roles and stereotypes, family relationships, nostalgia, and cultural loss and preservation are also explored in my work.
‘Tracciando fili del passato’ [Tracing Threads of the Past], is an ongoing series of live art performances, installations and video explorations, which incorporate the transformation of self into an imagined version of my Calabrian grandmothers. During these enactments, I make artefacts utilising traditional women’s modes of making – sewing, embroidery and crochet. These activities are chosen in order to highlight the significance of women’s handmade craft work, which were once an important aspect of family relationships, passed from mother to daughter. The work is a manifestation of their hopes and dreams and strives to honour the women migrants whose voices were not always heard on account of dominant gender roles within the Calabrian diaspora of 1950s, 60s and 70s Australia.
This paper was part of the 'Emotions of Cultures/ Cultures of Emotions: Comparative Perspectives' conference. 11–13 DECEMBER 2017, at THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The conference encouraged discussion across disciplines, cultures and historical periods, with a particular focus on broadening emotions history beyond its hitherto largely Western context.