Salami Face,
Performative Digital Photographs, 2021

Salami Face (2021) is a photographic performance that responds to the othering of my Slavic diasporic identity within multicultural Australia. In this work, I construct a mask from cured meats, cheese, olives, pickled onions, and gherkins; ingredients commonly found on the mezza plate that sits at the centre of family gatherings and cultural celebrations. The mask functions as both shield and statement, exploring how food becomes a marker of identity and a site through which culture is performed, maintained, and transmitted across generations.

Australia's multicultural identity is often imagined as a collection of distinct cultures coexisting side by side. While food has the power to create connection and solidarity between communities, it can also reinforce feelings of difference and belonging. For many migrants and their descendants, cultural foods become visible symbols through which identity is recognised, celebrated, and at times stereotyped.

By wearing the mezza plate as a mask, I reclaim and perform my diasporic identity through humour and self-portraiture. The work reflects on cultural assimilation, inherited memory, and the experience of navigating multiple identities. It draws attention to the ways language, food, and cultural traditions shape belonging, while acknowledging both the pressures and impossibility of fully assimilating into dominant cultural norms.

Digital/print assistance: Nick Greenwich
Camera Operations: Vanessa Henwood