Artist Francesca Rosa highlighted issues of displacement , isolation and depression that reverberates through Italy-born migrant women and their generations, using the portrait of her mother under lace , at the Cairns Regional Art Gallery.
The emotive work questions the quality of her ageing experience as a non-English speaking woman in Australia as she continues to struggle with grief, loneliness and regret.
The display includes biographical details of her mother , written in her own hand and translated . In it she says she was born near Mount Etna, her father, who wanted her to be a teacher, died when she was four ; she migrated on her own to Australia , married a cane cutter , had her first child and gave up work , her mother died at a young age and she became a widow ; a cyclone destroyed her house in 2006, she survived a stroke, her partner died from cancer , now she is alone and suffers depression. Photo by Abra .
