Transcript VERA ZULUMOVSKI - multicultural Australia

Vera Zulumovski
Making Multicultural Australia - http://www.multiculturalaustralia.gov.au
• Vera Zulumovski says her work reflects her rethinking and
exploration of her background, after growing up as the child of
Macedonian migrants, and the constantly changing sense of identity
this entailed.
• Newcastle-based Zulumovski says “by looking at the life of my
ancestors, I am able to more clearly and confidently comprehend my
identity, therefore my present and future.”
• Her work portrays aspects of the migrant experience and shows
Macedonian rituals and customs, often against an Australian
background.
“Self Portrait in Naroden Costume,”
lino, 1989.
•
•
•
•
•
“I frequently listen to my mother and
aunties fondly recalling the ritual that
went with dressing in their national
costume.
The proper sequence of dressing, the
particular style and the certain
elaborate features that distinguished
theirs from the villages in the
surrounding area.
They always talk about the time after
World War Two when some people
visited all the villages and bought up
most of the costumes, to sell in the
nineties for extraordinary prices.
Needless to say I don’t have one.
Yet I pine less now I have a visual
image of what it might look like if I did.”
“Three Eligible Daughters”
linocut, 1991. National Gallery of Australia Collection.
•
•
•
•
“Each of my three aunties at some
time during my formative years had
played a role as caretaker for me and
my siblings.
They were the ones with the stories
about places far away and long ago,
about bears in the woods which ate
small children and wolves which
walked upright and spoke like humans.
They were the ones who convinced
me that the dark shapes on the
moon’s surface were the edges of my
maternal grandmother’s skirt, who
lived in the same place the stories
came from.
It was my aunties’ world of imagination
I lived in during that time, and it is with
the same affection they told those
stories to me, that for them I made this
print as homage.”
“Sediments of Time”
lino, 1989.
•
•
•
“This is a narrative representation of
the recent and ancient history of my
ancestors, displayed in an urn shaped
archeological dig.
It displays certain features of a site
very near to where my parents were
born, of an ancient city called
Heraclare dating back to the 4th
century BC.
On the top sediment there are features
of more recent Macedonian history,
represented by monuments and
buildings erected during the Ottoman
Empire and after the first and second
world wars.”
“The Godmother”
lino, 1993.
•
•
•
•
•
“In an orthodox wedding ceremony, the
Godparent plays the most important
role.
He or she marries the couple by
exchanging the set of crowns they
wear for the service.
Godparents are usually distant
relatives or close friends and remain
an important part of the couple’s life.
In most families they have already had
a close association as godparents for
the groom’s parents or his male
siblings, and often the two families
have been associated in this
relationship for generations.
In this case the granddaughter of my
deceased godfather has taken up the
role.”
•
•
These images are free for your use for educational purposes, however not for publication.
For more copyright information go to www.multiculturalaustralia.gov.au