Giovanna Petrocchi (IT/GB, b. 1988) is an Italian photographer based in London. She graduated from the London College of Communication with a BA in Photography in 2015, and recently completed her MA in Visual Arts at Camberwell College of Arts, London. In 2017 she was selected as a winner of the LensCulture Emerging Talent Award, and in 2019 she exhibited her latest body of work at The Photographers’ Gallery as part of the TPG New Talent mentoring programme. She was recently nominated by CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia as a FUTURES photography talent. Recent exhibitions include With Monochrome Eyes at the Borough Road Gallery, London, and the Athens Photo Festival at the city’s Benaki Museum.
By combining personal photographs with found imagery and hand-made collages with 3d printing processes, Petrocchi creates imaginary landscapes inspired by surrealist paintings, virtual realities and ancient cultures. Influenced by museum displays and catalogues, Giovanna populates these landscapes with her own collection of surreal artefacts. The received view of ancient objects is deliberately distorted. A recurrent feature of her work is the juxtaposition of futuristic and primordial scenarios and the combination of historical and fictional elements.
Sculptural Entities aims to investigate the relationship between organic and artificial forms, but at the same time, between ancient and contemporary realms. It stems from her interest in examining how knowledge and cultural heritage are produced, organised and consequently authenticated. The work unveils Petrocchi’s personal desire to access and reconnect with the past, whilst allowing the viewer to explore historical narratives in an alternative way – in this case, by inspiring critical thinking via visual stimuli rather than through systematic dissemination of scientific data.
Artist is presented by A Corner With
