By Ronen Jafari
Adelaide based artist, Alyssa Powell-Ascura visited Melbourne for a conversation with Ronen Jafari about her newest work, Firstborn.
Last April 12, on a warm, sunny Saturday, the conversation and afternoon tea took place in Collingwood Yards to bid farewell to the exhibition.
A video essay showing in West Space’s micro-project space, the West Space Window, Firstborn is a deeply personal, multi-dimensional exploration of familial and societal expectations placed upon the eldest child.
Through Firstborn, Alyssa reflects on the often-unspoken pressures of responsibility, especially for women, and how these roles shift or persist across generations and cultural contexts.
Alyssa’s creative practices traverses intersections of food, culture and community, with undercurrents of the ways personal history overlaps with broader societal concerns. With Firstborn, she creates a space for shared experience and reflection, inviting audiences to consider the way power structures are inherited, resisted, and transformed.
During the conversation, members of the wider Filipino diaspora engaged with Alyssa around what it means to be a Firstborn. In a vulnerable moment, the work and the discussion taking place allowed audience members to open up with one another about their lived experiences.
The process behind Firstborn involved extensive research and intimate conversations, revealing both the challenges of disclosure –– and the healing that comes with shared understanding. As part of an ongoing series, Alyssa sees the work evolving and resonating with audiences far beyond its iteration at West Space.
“This piece is about connection,” she says, “and the way responsibilities and identities are shaped by place, family, and history.”
In this way, Firstborn isn’t just an artwork—it’s a conversation that continues to grow.
