Through drawing, sculpture, and performance I explore how sacred meaning is communicated through gesture, objects and narrative. My work investigates how rituals use somatic and sensory engagement to activate memories, navigate grief, and remain connected to those who are gone. For me, cleaning is one such ritual, inextricable from our sense of touch and intuition.
Within Italian immigrant communities, women are held responsible for the physical and spiritual care of their families and homes. This work emphasizes moving with intention predicated on slowness, which translates into doing things by hand- cooking, making medicine, and cleaning. My sensibilities around touch and cleaning are influenced by the unique women and matriarchs in my family who use cleaning to maintain harmony, show honor, and translate inter-generational skills and knowledge. Inspired by the material languages of generations of Italian immigrant women, my practice views cleaning as a foundational act of labor and an intuitive way of demonstrating care.
Our sense of touch teaches us about the world as we move through it, generating knowledge and trust—it is an intuitive form of learning. Furthermore, touch activates memory. This sense is considered irrational, primitive, and invalid in colonial and post-Enlightenment systems of knowledge, however, physical touch greatly impacts our interior and exterior worlds. My work employs touch as a tool for learning and as an agent of reciprocal change, care, and memorialization.
Being present in our bodies during the mundane ritual of cleaning is a way to radically slow down time, resist capitalist ideas of efficiency, and be conscious of what you are touching and how it is touching you. Cleaning has the power to keep us in relation to what is changing around us and within us.
Within Italian immigrant communities, women are held responsible for the physical and spiritual care of their families and homes. This work emphasizes moving with intention predicated on slowness, which translates into doing things by hand- cooking, making medicine, and cleaning. My sensibilities around touch and cleaning are influenced by the unique women and matriarchs in my family who use cleaning to maintain harmony, show honor, and translate inter-generational skills and knowledge. Inspired by the material languages of generations of Italian immigrant women, my practice views cleaning as a foundational act of labor and an intuitive way of demonstrating care.
Our sense of touch teaches us about the world as we move through it, generating knowledge and trust—it is an intuitive form of learning. Furthermore, touch activates memory. This sense is considered irrational, primitive, and invalid in colonial and post-Enlightenment systems of knowledge, however, physical touch greatly impacts our interior and exterior worlds. My work employs touch as a tool for learning and as an agent of reciprocal change, care, and memorialization.
Being present in our bodies during the mundane ritual of cleaning is a way to radically slow down time, resist capitalist ideas of efficiency, and be conscious of what you are touching and how it is touching you. Cleaning has the power to keep us in relation to what is changing around us and within us.
Not all cleaning is false is a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Alessandra Pozzuoli, featuring work made in response to her experiences mourning her maternal grandmother. Through video, performance, sculpture, and site-specific drawings, Pozzuoli explores how embodied rituals use somatic engagement to counter impermanence, navigate grief, and restore memories. Viewers are invited to consider how rituals of touch and cleaning allow us to lean into intuition, communicate without words, and remain connected to those who are gone. Not all cleaning is false is available to view at Whippersnapper Gallery.
Alessandra Pozzuoli is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and holds a BFA in Painting with a minor in Social Studies, History and Philosophy. She has exhibited her work in Tkaronto/Toronto and internationally. In 2021, she was Artist-Researcher-in Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her artwork and writing have been published by The Capilano Review, Hamam Magazine, and Mélange Creative Arts Journal. Her practice has been supported by the York Region Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Pozzuoli currently lives and works on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek Nations, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation- otherwise known as King, Ontario.
Alessandra Pozzuoli is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and holds a BFA in Painting with a minor in Social Studies, History and Philosophy. She has exhibited her work in Tkaronto/Toronto and internationally. In 2021, she was Artist-Researcher-in Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her artwork and writing have been published by The Capilano Review, Hamam Magazine, and Mélange Creative Arts Journal. Her practice has been supported by the York Region Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Pozzuoli currently lives and works on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek Nations, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation- otherwise known as King, Ontario.