five letters cinque lettere

five letters cinque lettere is an exhibition that is currently running at the Mildura Arts Centre until the 19^th of January. I am very proud of this exhibition and of being able to share stories of cultural loss, migration, community and that with grief there is love, and with love there is grief. I dedicated this exhibition to my mother Pellegrina Coppola, and in honour of my father Leonardo Coppola, and all those who footsteps led me to this moment.

My application to exhibit at the Mildura Arts Centre, included the exhibition five letters cinque lettere, the public forum five chapters cinque capitoli and the public programs which include inviting members of the community to write their surname and/or maiden name on Alpha Sound. This will become a collection of the family names which document the migration of Italians to the Mildura area.

I knew the exhibition space so well that the application included the layout of the works on each wall for each of the two rooms. I knew how I wanted visitors to enter, navigate and feel as they moved through the space. The only thing that changed in the installation was the placement of the sculptural works. Working with the installation team and seeing my vision realised was an incredibly overwhelming week. Re-installing the video of Mother Tongue which presents members of the first generation of migration to Mildura telling their story of leaving Italy, the journey and the arrival, felt like I had my father watching over me and he is still there watching over the exhibition.

It was important for me to show the three major works, Chasing the Disappeared, Mother Tongue and Alpha Sound together and in Mildura as the work was made about that community. Alpha Sound is becoming a collection of the family names of the Italian migration to Sunraysia, in a similar way that Mother Tongue carries the voice of the three generations from this migration speaking the alphabet. The alphabet emphasises the five letters, j k w x y, present in the English alphabet and absent in the Italian.

I am grateful that the Mildura Art Centre selected this exhibition to part of their summer program and supported it with a catalogue. I was able to work with Saunders Design to make a beautiful catalogue that carries the same feel as the exhibition. I wrote the catalogue introduction and asked Dr Eliana Maestri to write the catalogue essay which she titled Art as Generosity, it is a powerful accompaniment to my work.

I also wrote the descriptive labels for all the works in the exhibition, which shares the story for each work in the first person and it is my story which I share with the reader. I hope the experience is a personal one for each viewer but also one that opens up a conversations, of migration, cultural loss, grief and love.