Research investigates particular ways that
memorialising and mourning can be made manifest through public
commemorative objects and spaces such as memorials and through smaller
scale personal mementos. It also examines ways that these physical
reminders can act as repositories and markers for memory, and as
metaphors for identity. In particular the research is focussed on
Traditional Southern Italian customs, reflecting on the ways that
keepsakes and the cenotaph can provide allegories for declining
cultural practices of Southern Italian migrants in Australia. The data
collected for this thesis is based partly on participant observation,
and on informal conversations with migrants from Southern Italy,
regarding their funerary practices and stories told about the rural
areas left behind in Italy. Research of visual and published material
in the area of memorialising and memorial object are examined in order
to gain an understanding of the language of death. The thesis also
examines the use of Catholic religious objects in what anthropologist
Per Binde has coined ‘transactional acts’, during supplication and
remembrance and during times of mourning. An exploration of memorial
and memento objects, by contemporary practitioners including Christian
Boltanski, Lindy Lee, Julie Blyfield and Maya Lin has also been
included. Inclusion of contemporary artists reflects on how memorials
continue to play an important role in today’s society as well as being
integral in reflecting identity and maintaining connections with the
past.
Investigation of this genre is expressed through the
research document and a body of studio-based research connected to the
traditions of Memorialising. The studio research is expressed in the
exhibition ‘In Black’ through the language of Catholic religious
objects, memory boxes, personal mementos and cultural signifiers in
wax, metal, and installation. These works, as time capsules are filled
with significant representations of individuals and events that evoke
memories through depictions of life, significant places and words
descriptive of time and place.©
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