TAKE UP SPACE: But where is your family from?

TAKE UP SPACE: But where is your family from? is a project that contributes to and opens up conversations on the impact of migration on collective and personal identity using photography, large-scale textile pieces, soft sculpture and installations.

I am an Australian artist who uses photography as a starting point to create works on paper and on textiles, using collage and techniques traditionally considered “women’s work” such as embroidery, sewing or crochet.

Growing up in 1980s Australia in a family of mixed cultures – Italian and Scottish - ‘yes, but where is your family from?’ is a question I would often get asked, to ‘get to them bottom’ of my nationality. My vision is to contribute to and open up conversations on the impact of migration on collective and personal identity. I will use my family history of migration to Australia from Scotland and Italy, (1930s - 1960s) and how this relates to present day conversations.

This project is part of a wider series called ‘TAKE UP SPACE’, where I look at different ways in which I, as an artist, can take up space both physically and in conversation. In the TAKE UP SPACE series, I explore themes such as equality for women, the notion of ‘just craft’ vs fine art and, through this particular project: migration and family histories. This project combines my own family photographs and stories with mixed media to contribute to conversations on migration and its present day impact.

The theme of migration is as important today as it was when my grandparents migrated to Australia many decades ago. Trying to fit in and avoid standing out. Or being to told to fit in at all costs. Embracing new ways of life. Being accepted (or otherwise). Being homesick. Settling in communities that have remarkable similarities alongside extraordinary differences to back home. The importance of collecting things – photographs, souvenirs, letters - to remind us of homelands left and to document new lives being built.

There were lessons intrinsically passed on through my family's migration experiences that are apparent in my work. Storytelling and humour were important. So was mending and making do. Collecting memories like family photographs, menus from their ship journey to Australia or holiday trinkets were all treasured documents of a new life. Assessing the cultural lay of the land and adapting accordingly were also essential.

This all trickled down and found its way into my artwork. Such as my use of old photos and pre-loved objects that bear the mark of those who owned them before.

I was also surrounded by women in my family who would sew, embroider, knit and make.  I have now begun to experiment with these skills, incorporating them in my work. Such as dressmaking, crochet, sewing and embroidery – all skills traditionally considered “women’s work” and deserving of holding a place in an art world setting. This type of work in a new direction for me as an artist.

Using these skills, I will create and exhibit larger scale pieces that physically take up space in a room – much like this topic seeks to become part of everyday conversations on migration. Audiences will have to physically negotiate their way around pieces, and will discover works that share human stories and open up conversations. Such as large-scale textile banners, soft sculptures, scenes of dinner tables with handmade ceramic pieces telling family stories of migration experiences and video pieces projected onto walls. All incorporating personal artifacts including photographs, objects and stories of my family’s migrant experiences.

Now is a time of experimentation and new direction in my work. As part of this series I will create new works and experiment with larger scale pieces (something new to my practice). I have learnt to screen print photographs on to fabric and experiment with soft sculpture, for example. This can be seen in my work-in-progress pieces, ‘Family Chain’, ‘A Shift in Perspective’ and ‘That Termite Hill Tells A Story’.

‘Family Chain’ is a soft sculpture taking the form of a large textile chain (approx 6.5m long), made of screenprinted family photographs documenting my family’s new lives in Australia. This piece will snake across the exhibition space – almost like a line of travel on a map – and audiences will be confronted by the work and forced to negotiate their way around it. (Imagery and in progress videos can be found here, https://www.rossannepellegrino.com/butwhereisyourfamilyfrom and an example of the chain link here, https://shorturl.at/1c5Vp). Or ‘A Shift in Perspective’, a shift dress that will be made from a screenprinted family photograph of my mother as a young woman wearing a shift dress, taken in the backyard of her suburban Australian home in the 1960s.

‘That Termite Hill Tells A Story’ is made of deep red-coloured cotton which is crocheted and coiled into the shape of a large termite mound. Tied to it are shreds of family photographs screenprinted on cotton and with elements of hand beading. 'That Termite Hill Tells A Story' is inspired by family memories and storytelling. On a family trip to Darwin, Australia I observed the roads were lined with almost otherworldly looking human-sized termite mounds. Sometimes passersby would dress these termite mounds in t-shirts. It was a surreal sight, especially with the beautiful moon-like backdrop of the North Territory landscape. Seeing these mounds, I felt like I was in another world. I wonder if this is how my family felt at times in their new Australian home and whether documenting their new lives through photographs, was a way of processing this. ('That Termite Hill Tells A Story' is found here: https://shorturl.at/GwVP1).

I will also include selected previously made pieces in this series, which use my family photographs to tell family members’ stories and document their lives in Australia. These photographs have been enlarged and embroidered – interventions to retell and reimagine its subjects histories.

I am now at a pivotal moment in my creative practice: I am incorporating new skills and techniques in my work and experimenting with soft sculpture, video and installation pieces. This is a huge moment of experimentation in my art practice and it is important for me to show this work to international audiences, as the migration experience is not specific to a single location. It is a topic that impacts us all – from the friends we make, the food and culture to which we are introduced, to the difficult conversations we may encounter. Or the questions we may get asked, such as “yes, but where are you from?”

You can see the project to date, including archives, stories, works and behind the scenes documentation: https://www.rossannepellegrino.com/butwhereisyourfamilyfrom