In her studio practice Tonia employs time-based media including photography, video and audio recording. She offers about her practice:

I endeavor to examine the ways in which identities are formed in relation to ethnicity. As a first generation Canadian-Italian, who is neither fluent in the language nor religious, I see my Italian heritage dissolve and diffuse within mainstream North American culture.  In gathering, drawing and collecting images and objects I associate within a specific female cultural identity, I attempt to rediscover customs and artifacts in order to form a history. My research includes an exploration of social position and lifestyle in relation to the women of my past. This investigation is not to transcend their lives but to look to the past as a way of understanding and informing the present through the various permutations of social customs and norms. My work has developed through ongoing investigations of gendered ethnicity in relation to domestic issues, including housekeeping, home maintenance, food preparation, interior decoration and relationships to the miniature.

She received a BA in Art and Art History from the University of Toronto and Sheridan College and an MFA from the University of Windsor. She has exhibited across Canada and has been the recipient of Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Nova Scotia arts grants.

toniadirisio.com