Foreign Soil

Abstract

This solo exhibition developed in response to Australian commemorations of the Anzac legend during the WW1 centenary. Taking my grandfather’s experience as an Italian soldier as a starting point, this work reflects on the international tragedy of the war and the legacy of migrant histories within Australia that exist alongside the Anzac story. I scoured archives and amassed a personal collection of photographs and artefacts to develop a body of drawing, photography, sculpture, collage, performance and memoir that considered the imperial origins of the war, the shared tragedies that crossed national borders, and the mythologisation of this history in a settler colonial context. By investigating themes of belonging, estrangement, and the construction of cultural memory, the exhibition critiques the political forces shaping the war and its commemoration in Australia. By presenting a heterogeneous set of narratives based on both family archives as well as collected historical research, the exhibition demonstrates the fragility of the nationalist myth in the face of a collective, transnational experience of the war. This research offered a range of alternative ways of approaching a historical narrative that has been largely co-opted for a nationalist agenda. Its excellence is attested to by its presentation by the international standard John Curtin Gallery, its funding by the WA Department of Culture and the Arts, and press coverage including a preview in the national publication Art Guide Australia.