11/11/2023
I was born in Pescara, Italy in 1989. Surely I can say that I have always looked for something outside the box and I have always felt living in Italy was stagnant due to lack of opportunities and regressive way of thinking…
The emotional toll as an immigrant, particularly in my early years in Canada, made me question many aspect of my identity accentuated by new customs, a language barrier that often turned down opportunities, or made me more vulnerable in situation where I was on the receiving end of micro-aggressions and racial slurs. I felt a sense of being emotionally and psychologically disconnected.
Though Toronto is a vibrant and thriving multicultural city with an incredible food scene and events all the time, I often found myself in scenarios of full social isolation. Working on four different part times jobs, countless sacrifices, and extreme overthinking, I was introduced to post-landing depression by my doctor in my third year of living in Canada. I recognized the same characteristics by feelings of sadness, nostalgia, and a sense of disconnection from the world I had around. I used to numb these feelings of discomfort with the abuse of alcohol.
When I travel to countries with ancient architecture, I am intrigued by their beauty. I am fascinated by the decay of tiles and frescoes that creates a pattern against the patches of plaster. I see them as a cluster of broken forms with negative space around them, yet they creates scene where they embrace each other. Same applies to my paintings, I deconstruct the forms, the bodies and I isolated them. My therapist suggested that maybe these forms are speaking to the isolation that I had felt when I moved to Canada; this interruption of relationships I lived through for a while.
Whether it’s trauma or nostalgia - that's what this part represents. The almost sculpture - like figures in my paintings are hollow - a metaphor for a traumatized inner self. This is what identity is made of. Through the use of harsh light and shadows, I cast a light on the void space inside and around the figures, symbolizing a hidden wound, and the overall loneliness of my subjects.