Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Isabella Nicastro

Malocchio

This painting embodies generations worth of superstitious belief and prayer ritual in southern Italian culture. Depicting amulets being sold in a tourist shop in Calabria, the 'mano cornuto' or chili pepper 'corni' charms are commonly kept or worn in order to protect the owner from the ancient belief of the 'malocchio' or evil eye. The malocchio is the concept that envy or jealousy can inflict harm or malice upon anything that one holds as sacred, good, or pure, including another person. Those struck by the malocchio will often experience psychosomatic symptoms, such as a headache, stomachache, etc. The malocchio is typically removed from a person by a female relative during a very specific Catholic prayer ritual/incantation, passed down as a matriarchal practice for several generations now. The practice is still somewhat viewed as an occult or 'ungodly' belief.

“Inspired by a trip to my grandparents’ town of origin in the south of Italy, this body of work seeks to investigate the intersection between my southern Italian ancestral heritage and my upbringing in Canada. A fragmented sense of identity commonly found in second and third generation citizens is dissected through the lens of personal experience. Close-cropped, abnormal compositions juxtapose conventional European methods of oil painting, displacing the viewer from the entire context of the world in which they are immersed, echoing the manner in which I am disconnected from the complete context of my heritage. These works present covert emblems embedded throughout, inquiring how factors such as religion, superstition, and cultural practices have dispersed through my familial lineage by inviting the viewer to observe complexities surrounding spiritual beliefs and the intangible.”