Marina Gonella: Connecting Place and Identity through Art

By Heike Dempster

“My work is about the relationship between place and identity,” says Miami-based artist Marina Gonella. “The place where we live conditions our acts, thoughts and way of life. Whatever surrounds us modifies our behavior; we change according to where we are and what we experience, adapting ourselves to the environment.”

Gonella started thinking about that relationship between place and identity when she moved to Florida. Realizing the connection, the artist decided to explore the topic further, starting with her own emotions, bonds and identity construction based on her cultural heritage, migration and new home. The development of a bond and a feeling of being “home,” or belonging to a specific place, takes time. One has to experience the new environment, engage with its people, customs and culture to eventually become an integral part of the construct oneself.

Marina Gonella, Bridges, 2013, acrylic, transfer and collage on canvas, 62" x 62".

Once a connection is forged and a sense of place and belonging has been established, identity becomes more complex for any migrant, as two or more places, often with distinct identities of their own, either merge into or co-exist within a new and very personal identity construct. Home is often a very romantic notion of a place with a deep emotional connection. Maps can serve as personifications of said connection, and Gonella has started to work with maps, landmarks and road signage as part of her examinations, creating a continuous artistic dialogue.

Born in Chicago and raised in Buenos Aires, Gonella graduated from the art school Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredon in Buenos Aires before moving in 2002 with her family to Miami, where she now balances her career and motherhood.

Argentina, and especially Buenos Aires, constitutes an important part of Gonella’s identity, and the city keeps inspiring the artist on many levels. The architecture, language and traditions of Buenos Aires, greatly influenced by European immigrants, shaped not only Gonella’s aesthetics but also her perception of place. Migration changes not just the individual but also the surrounding society and environment. Gonella inherited a sense of importance of family and friendship from her Italian great-grandparents, who passed down their values through generations. Values like those, intrinsically part of identity, translate into a new home and become part of the hybrid migrant culture.

Marina Gonella, Directions 3, acrylic and transfer on canvas, 60”x60.”

“Every person is altered when they move and make a radical change in their lives,” says Gonella. “The essence of each person given by his or her cultural background, education, life experiences, childhood and family is very hard to alter-although there definitely are transformations in the everyday life that make you a different person. There is a profound interacting feeling of nostalgia of what you left behind and an awareness of new surroundings at the same time. I think one of the most important decisions in my career was when I moved from Argentina to Miami and decided to continue as a full-time artist, merging my prior experiences with the new culture.”

The vibrant and evolving local art scene in Miami offered Gonella a place to grow and define her voice as an artist. With a studio at Art Center/South Florida, which she refers to as “one of the most important and renowned art residencies in Miami,” Gonella thrives in her environment. The energy of Miami, tropical climate, cultural diversity and a sense of belonging and community fuel the artist’s practice. Whether mixed media, acrylic, collage, paper, transparencies or ink transfers, Gonella has been experimental in her practice.

Gonella’s work process starts with the photography, followed by Photoshop sessions to alter colors, contrasts and highlights. For her work engaging in topics of identity and place, Gonella takes pictures of places, objects or landscapes and sets them over maps, sometimes in the exact spot where they belong and other times in a different location. “I use the map as a container of space and places and the emotional relationship that I have with them,” she explains.

Marina Gonella, Take 95 North, collage on wood 12” x 12.”

The juxtaposition of color elements with the black-and-white images of landscapes, buildings and recognizable landmarks in combination with abstract textures creates a synthesized and symbiotic composition. The literal and abstract elements are visually compelling and conceptually engaging as the familiarity of the former is challenged by the latter to re-create the process of connecting to a place and forging an identity based on that connection. The map personifies the emotional aspect, but arbitrary landmarks may or may not be where they belong, which conveys a sense of insecurity often experienced in the migration process.

The landmarks and environmental particularities of any place play an important role in anyone’s sense of belonging as the sight will trigger familiarity. Gonella takes her interpretation of place and identifying markers beyond photographing famous buildings. When thinking of a place she tries to capture the small details that play a role in the construct of identity hidden within: the overall energy, smell, sound, history, people and, most importantly, oppositional other.

Marina Gonella, Where is this?, acrylic and collage on canvas, 48”x60.”

Gonella’s art works through contrast, whether in the individual parts of the narrative such as photos and maps or the final piece: old and new, industrial and nature, full and empty, black and white and color, collages and paint. The contrasts move the narrative within each work of art forward and show glimpses of layered meanings and conceptual construction as intricate and complex as identity itself.

The other juxtaposition in Gonella’s art is the dichotomy between movement and exploration beyond the known versus the significance of landmarks to a sense of home and belonging. Says Gonella, “The significance of the landmark is important because I work with the idea of place and the space that surrounds me, and the signs give you its geographical reference. On the other hand, the signs tell you not only where you are but also where to go. Like in our own lives you might sometimes follow this signs or you can make your own path, your own experience, your own search.”

The complexities of Gonella’s own identity construction inform the dialogue in the art. Space conditions human behavior and each individual’s identity, and how it is expressed is personal. Gonella’s artistic interpretations of said complexities incorporate elements of her surroundings that identify her, either as remnants from the past or related to the current environment.

“In some of my work I converge elements from both of these factors,” explains Gonella. “In my Directions series I used different buildings from Buenos Aires, architecture that I grew up with. In other works, such as North or South, I represent the emotional connection that I have with the two hemispheres. These are always new, reinvented spaces.”

The art of Marina Gonella is as complex as the subject matter she explores. A balance between curiosity, a sense of exploration, excitement, and the fun of the “run of the gauntlet”- feeling migration can provoke is embedded with the artistic and visual contrasts. Migration, nostalgia, definitions of home and place, identity construction and the interconnections in between inform not just the art but also show us who the artist is.

Marina Gonella, Going West, 2013, collage and transfer on wood, 10” x 20.”

With many more places on her dream travel list, such as Iceland, Northern Africa, and Thailand, Gonella’s photographs, maps and concepts will, quite literally, offer a world of diversity in forthcoming projects and series informed by anthropology and geography as well as emotion.

For Miami Art week 2013, Gonella will convert her studio at the Art Center/South Florida into a small gallery and be part of a curated platform called “Remarkable Projects” created by Leila Leder Kremer and Juana Meneses. For 2014, Gonella is working on an installation project with construction waste called Construction, Deconstruction, Construction, as well as a solo show.

Gonella elaborates, “I will continue to materialize the idea and concept of construction, deconstruction, construction that applies not only to the specific construction site but also how it is reflected in our lives, the transformation that happens when you build your life in a certain way and the transition of rebuilding it, incorporating more tangible and conceptual elements of everyday life.”

Marina Gonella’s studio is located at ArtCenter South Florida. 924 Lincoln Rd. Studio # 202. Miami Beach, Florida 33139 / Phone 754 366 0828 / marinagonella@yahoo.com / www.marinagonella.com