Cocchiarelli: Within your composition there is basically a trompe l’oeil of an interior room with a contemporary poster plastered onto its ancient wall. It seems to be advertising the television show The Sopranos. Placed in this beautiful space that represents pride to you at first suggests that the poster may belong there, visually, just comfortably within the composition. But upon further reflection it doesn’t seem to belong there. Its placement becomes uncomfortable at best. By the conscious placement of this image (a Sopranos poster) are you suggesting that this may possibly insult Italian Americans? The image itself is an advertisement for The Sopranos’ Family Cookbook with a gun on the table. The poster is weathered and seems to be a subject of vandalism itself, being pulled off the wall. Why did you choose that particular poster to intrude upon such a sacred site?

Petracca: The wall in this villa in Pompeii (House of the Small Fountain) was found quite complete. The mural depicts a vista made to look out of a window into the landscape, and this is the back wall of a dark villa—it is so sophisticated and exudes an incredible amount of beauty. It was painted as a backdrop to their daily lives. I began conceptualizing the comparison of the act of creating a mural on a wall, in America maybe in a place such as Soho for people to enjoy. Then someone would come along and tag it with a poster to advertise a movie, a concert or maybe a graffiti artist adds his or her expression to what was already created. None of these acts acknowledge the craftsmanship of the original artist. It is a flagrant disrespect or disregard for the creative ability of the first person who painted the mural. In a similar way I did the same thing.
First I created a very detailed painting, true to the mural I had experienced in Pompeii—weathered and aged. Then onto this wall with its revered history I pasted a poster of The Sopranos’ Family Cookbook. I must acknowledge the element of humor in my creative process. This work made me laugh as I began thinking Let’s cook Italian and wondering Who did eat in the House of the Small Fountain historically? I painted the poster illusionistically so that it appears to have been plastered on in a hurry, tagged like hit and run. My thought continued with someone else walking into the room, seeing the poster, and trying to rip it off the wall, even though it’s not easily removed. Much of it is still showing, a feature I hoped would illustrate the metaphor of the struggle of the Italian immigrant against stereotyping in America. We keep trying to erase them but they keep coming back. With the tag of The Sopranos poster on the Pompeian wall, I am trying to say something about the nature of our struggle.

Cocchiarelli: One of the subtitles you have for the show is Pompeii Overlay Tagged. Do you see yourself as an American as well as an Italian American who is doing the tagging?

Petracca: It is a metaphor. Together with other Italian Americans, I have had to endure this. In a way it is difficult for me to create a painting of such a revered Pompeian wall and then paste a poster of The Sopranos’ Family Cookbook, onto it. I thought to myself, why do I want to do that? What am I trying to communicate through my work? I am hopeful that the interpretation goes beyond the superficial. I am trying to make a comment on how the Italian American struggle moves one step forward and then one step back since we arrived here a hundred years ago.

Cocchiarelli: My interpretation was quite different. By placing this cookbook poster—a common icon of our culture—in the House of the Small Fountain in Pompeii, I think you are forcing these stereotypes into obsolescence. You have placed this icon of low self-esteem and Italian American self-hatred inside a room where it does not belong. In a sense, you are raising the bar so that people consciously or even unconsciously may begin to comprehend the absurdity of mixing these symbols within the same space.

Petracca: Right, that’s a good point. In another show I had, These are not my Shoes, I tried to make it so obvious that it became absurd. The absurdity is the point. I don’t want to be ______?

Cocchiarelli: Didactic?

Petracca: Yes, yes, and at the same time not too subtle either. I want it to be somewhere in the middle. Actually, to tell you the truth, many Americans probably won’t understand that concept of this doesn’t belong, because their attitudes are so ingrained. They might look at my work and laugh—think it is funny. I have had this response to my work in the past. Even when I am very obvious, the public sometimes can’t get it.

Cocchiarelli: Are you insulted when your audience laughs at your work?

Petracca: No, no because I’ve been an artist for a long time. I have learned how to handle that, but I did sometimes experience anger and sadness. I want to be understood as an artist interested in making a statement through my work—it is not art for art’s sake.
In our time artists work in a different manner, artists tend to create layers of meaning. I am allowing people who look at this work to miss my message.