Content area
Full Text
Storytelling has been an intrinsic part of culture since humans developed the faculty for language. It has been instrumental in fostering group identification, conveying moral codes and sharing understandings of the world. While contemporary society's reliance on writing has largely usurped the conventional role of storytelling, this has not diminished the power of the spoken word. Indeed, testament to its enduring influence is the global success of online TED Talks - a twenty-first century version of gathering around a campfire listening to stories.
For Melbourne-based artist Angela Cavalieri, the importance of storytelling has never been in question. As a secondgeneration migrant, the spoken word has had a pervasive influence on her life. It was an important means by which her family kept in touch with relatives in Italy. In the absence of telephones, audio recordings were sent by mail. Rather than conversation, their exchanges were narratives: tales of domestic events and anecdotes of gossip ensured the family remained connected despite the difficulties of distance.
Storytelling underpins Cavalieri's impressive large-scale linocut prints. Her interest in visualising spoken language gives rise to images in which words swirl, enveloping the speakers, or reach out across the expanse of canvas to connect figures at the extremes of the picture plane. Cavalieri's most recent project investigates musical storytelling. This direction began in 2011 following a commission by the Arts Centre Melbourne to create a work about opera. For Cavalieri, Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) became...