I have recently received Regional Arts Victoria Funding to make a new work titled Mother Tongue. The work will be a multi media installation with drawing, sound and documentary footage.
In this work I will record individual voices from the three generations – the original Italian migrants, their children and the grandchildren. I will record individual voices saying the alphabet in their own native language and dialect. I have chosen the alphabet because the Italian alphabet has only 21 letters as opposed to 26 in the English alphabet. I will overlay the voices to create symphony of sound and language. The sound piece will be heard whilst viewing work which will visually explore the notion of “Mother Tongue”. Whilst making the sound recordings of the alphabet I will also ask each participant to share a story about their experience of migration. The individual stories will be filmed and become a filmic documentary of migration stories. This will create a dynamic connection between the voices, the drawings and the faces of immigration to this region.