Ada Marino
© Ada Marino
The notion of the proverbial American Dream is deeply rooted in individual aspirations and societal ideals, though in contemporary times, this ideal has been criticised for losing its authenticity and coming across as deceitful.
Visible Repairs is a work where a new coniated ethos “The Welsh Dream” emerges as a revitalised concept seeking to reshape the narrative distancing itself from the capitalization of the term often associated with the American Dream.
Dylan Thomas’s expression, "Thank GOD for the Italians, Wales wouldn't have been the same without them," hints at the significant impact of different cultures in shaping Wales as a promised land.
This visual document investigates the preconceptions related to Welsh women and their societal roles, “The prevalent ‘Welsh Mam’ stereotype with its twin emphases of domestic service and matriarchy leaves little room for women”, connectable to the status of women and domesticity which have shaped the artist’s background; Evoking elements belonging to both cultures represent a conduit to explain the parallelism between the functions, preservation of cultural aspects and a new cultural model internalisation “The process of Adaptation, Assimilation and Integration”, a re-construction of a social identity and visually unveil untold histories and forgotten memories, breathing new life into past narratives. Self-discovery and identity reclamation, in a very act of visible repair, represent a proactive assertion of a continuous dialogue between past and present, self and society influences that performed to inform, heal and empower, exploring the traces of cultural confrontation and the transformative process of familiarisation within a new environment, reassessing the view on gender, culture, and identity through the lens of Ada’s experience as an immigrant in Wales.
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Ada Marino is an Italian visual artist based in Wales. Working at the intersection between photography and installation, her practice focuses on past events of her subjects, their memories and traumas that re-emerge and manifest as a form of cynical surrealism. Marino’s practice analyses and interprets the contradictory forces that shape society, inviting viewers to perceive the world through a different lens exposing the intricacies of the human condition which lead to confront with uncomfortable truths, and challenging conventional notions of beauty and ugliness to provoke a reconsideration of our preconceptions.