Giovanna Petrocchi: Zone of Proximity

About

With Giovanna's images she aims to create assemblages that would encourage our imagination to roam outside the conventional idea of what a photograph is or should be. Each of her collages is an offbeat look at the natural world, depicting uncontaminated nature often enriched by the presence of eccentric animals. Her practice is highly mediated, mixing images from a variety of sources, including found photography, magazines, and personal photographs. The elements that form the works are cut out and assembled by hand to produce a three dimensional artwork which is then scanned and printed therefore giving stress to the smooth surface of the paper and its photographic qualities.

Giovanna’s work hints at a distant paradisiacal terrain. With subtle abstractions and glowing colours, she alludes to alternate worlds in which nature plays a prominent part. These scenes are at once familiar and foreign. They are a reaction and response to places she has either seen depicted, or imagined. Both imagination and memory feed into creating these evocative moments. Giovanna likes to think of each collage as a small scene, as a moment in this invented scenario that conveys her idea of the perfect landscape.

Through this collection of landscapes the artist investigates and defines our associations with place and experience, one that is both visual and instinctive. Referencing ‘A Thousand Plateaus’ discussion on Becoming - Animal made through a biological narrative of the orchid and the wasp,  they belong to quite different realms, the de-territorialisation that they share, for instance the orchid imitating the wasp for the propagation of its species allows them to find a common zone of proximity

About the Artist:

Giovanna Petrocchi is an Italian visual artist who lives and works in London. Graduating in 2015 with a BA in Photography from the London College of Communication, she was subsequently awarded the Flowers Gallery Photo prize 2015 and her work was also featured in the British Journal of Photography. Her latest work has been exhibited in the Pingyao International Photography Festival, China, and in the group show “Psyche Valuations” at the White Conduit Projects, London. Most recently, she has been selected as a winner for Flash Forward Magenta Foundation 2016.