Exegesis

Memory Deep explores notions of ethnicity, memory and identity, focusing on the inevitability of an ethnic minority's adjustment into Australian society, and the disassociation from heritage and ancestral culture. The olfactory sense holds a strong correlation to memories of past events or emotions. While memory is often altered or diminished over time, it may continue to exist in a transformed state. 

The work contains five handmade fragrances which recall a childhood spent in a noisy Italian kitchen, a grimy mechanic's workshop and the quintessentially 'woggy' concrete garden. The scents have been applied to (6ft, narrow, pine) tables that reinvent the objects of a child's desire, and an inability to fully grasp them; or as an adult, the ability to reach into the past.

The video component addresses the degree of imitation which a third generation Italian might employ in order to assimilate into the space between two cultures. In the video, the subject (me) applies the makeup and costume of three famous Sicilians, rehearsing their classic lines in an obviously crude attempt to assume just a part of the conviction with which they portray their identity.