Chips Mackinolty, La ricchizza di la terra/La ricchezza della terra/The wealth of the land

Published by: The Cross Art Projects | 17-Apr-2016
The exhibition, La ricchizza di la terra/La ricchezza della terra/The wealth of the land is based on a year in Palermo, and looks at the produce, and the people and language, of the old markets here. It is very much about things so important in Italian cooking: local produce, seasonally available. In developing this body of work, I have become acutely aware of the ways in which language has both shaped and reflected changes in food availability over thousands of years. "New" foods have become available over those millennia: carried on the back of trade and conquest from other parts of Italy and Europe; from the middle and far east; and from Africa and south America. These foods have slowly become part of local cultures and language. It is part of the human story but one which today, in this age of globalisation, may threaten our existence.
Venue: The Cross Art Projects
Address: 8 Llankelly Place, Kings Cross 2011
Date: 14 May to 4 June 2016
Time: Hours: 11 to 6 Thursday to Saturday* or by appointment * Saturday close at 5pm
Ticket: Free
Web: http://crossart.com.au/
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EMail: info@crossart.com.au
Call: (02) 9357 2058
The exhibition, La ricchizza di la terra/La ricchezza della terra/The wealth of the land is based on a year in Palermo, and looks at the produce, and the people and language, of the old markets here. It is very much about things so important in Italian cooking: local produce, seasonally available.

In developing this body of work, I have become acutely aware of the ways in which language has both shaped and reflected changes in food availability over thousands of years. "New" foods have become available over those millennia: carried on the back of trade and conquest from other parts of Italy and Europe; from the middle and far east; and from Africa and south America. These foods have slowly become part of local cultures and language. It is part of the human story but one which today, in this age of globalisation, may threaten our existence.

Working with Palermitano dialect"”as well as Italian"”has made sense from the beginning. But translator Francesco Pusateri, through his many commentaries to me, has heightened the tragedy of loss that sees the existence of local food varieties withering alongside the cultural loss of local language: they are inexorably linked.

And we are the poorer for it. All of us.

Chips Mackinolty: Artist, graphic designer and writer based, with the occasional piece of radio and music thrown in, from Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory of Australia. Media: digital drawing and print.

Darwin/Palermo, February 2016
www.chipsmackinolty.com

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