ALEXANDRA FONGARO
DOMESTICATION
2024, watercolor and acrylic ink on canvas, 100 x 50cm
Domestication renders all materiality transparent, giving visibility to subjectsthat believed their intentions were hidden in the safety of shadows.
ANTINOUS & HADRIANUS
LET'S IMMIGRATE TO A COLDER PLACE FOR THE WINTER
2024, watercolor and acrylic ink on canvas, 40 x 20 cm
Antinous & Hadrianus, Zeus & Ganymede, and Oscar & Alfred are are part of a series of couples examining the language we use cross-culturally to describe gay people and how coincidentally, in many languages, it is vegetal.
ZEUS & GANYMEDE
BRUSH ME, RUGGIERO
2024, watercolor and acrylic ink on canvas, 40 x 20 cm
OSCAR & ALFRED
2024, watercolor and acrylic ink on canvas, 40 x 20 cm
BOUQUET FIT FOR A ROMAN
SEDANOI & sedaNO
2023, watercolor and ink on canvas, 9 3.94” x 3.94” canvasses| 10 x 10cm, GIF on screen in acrylic
Giuseppe Tagliacozzi, Italy’s first cosmetic surgeon, lived for a time in Tagliacozzo. Taggliacozzi, grafted flesh from his patients’ arms, still attached, to the noses of his patients. Once bedridden in a special device to ensure that the flesh would not come off the arm, patients can now show their patches as they heal.
The face of a woman, Maya, of Persian descent, an area that competes with the most rhinoplasties in the world, becomes a status ‘symbol. A rhinoplasty plays to two audiences that know and don’t know, those who have witnessed a transformation, or have trained themselves to see a nose job, and those who have accepted the nose as part of the nature, as having its proper place.
Grafting also took place in the Ducal Palace in Tagliacozzo in the 1980s, in the form of people who carried away pieces of the building. Those familiar with the original appearance of the palace witnessed the transformation of a building, the removal of material from its origin and its placement in another. There are those who see the palace, and accept its aging nature, as a fracture.
AQUEOUS HUMOR
I RAMI CHE RACCONTANO
I RAMI CHE RACCONTANO
2024, watercolor and acrylic ink on canvas, 40 x 20 cm
SIT ON MY FACE
THE ILLUMINATED
2024, watercolor and acrylic ink on canvas, 40 x 20 cm
Why didn’t I listen to the speech that the artichoke leaves sighed to me, accumulated in the dumpster.
Cutting my fingers, with the tips of your wild shape, I was waiting to find a heart, but I found myself fingerless in front of the dumpster, alternating these phrases, when I always knew, and always waited, that the leaf would be the right one.
2024, watercolor on canvas, 13 x 18cm
Online expression both enriches and fragments our identities, with a profound disconnect emerging between our virtual and tangible selves. My initiation into dating apps when I was 19, with a genuine attempt to portray my essence, was met within minutes with: “Do you want to sit on my face or I’ll eat it from behind?”. This increasingly common candid vulgarity symbolizes a broader trend of bold solicitations that transcend dating platforms, infiltrating any online space where individuals unabashedly reveal their sexual desires.
SEDANONNO
SEDANONNA
مسكين
INSITIONEM
2024, watercolor on canvas, 13 x 18cm
2024, watercolor and ink on canvas, 13 x 18cm
Born to a Sicilian mother, who often speaks to me in a dialect with a strong Arabic influence, the word “mischina” was present in our home, in an affectionate way. مسكين (miskin) was adapted into Sicilian , meaning poor thing. Reading the lips of models from different backgrounds, modifying them with their accents, I am investigating the permutations of the mouth.
By programming small vibrating coin engines, according to the different vocal chords of the models of this project, it inspires sensitivity in hearing people, and to adapt my language to a community that normally has to adapt his to meet mine, that of the deaf.
2023, watercolor & acrylic ink on canvas, 10 x 10cm
I dreamed, celery of mine, that you grew until you filled the whole house!
Creating a Punnet
Square, this family of celery follows the growth & lightening of genetically modified celery.
2023, watercolor & acrylic ink on canvas, celery diffuser, 10 x 10cm
2023, watercolor & acrylic ink on canvas, celery diffuser, 1.5 x 1.5m
AQUEOUS HUMOR
2022, Watercolor on recycled cotton paper, colorblind glasses, printed PVC mounted on wood, dimensions variable.
Aqueous Humor was an installation at the optical shop of the Pope, at Ottica Spiezia in Rome, Italy. The building was constructed in 1921, the same year in which Shinobu Ishihara changed his color blind test from Kanji to numbers, and began distributing
the tests internationally. Over 100 years later, this test is still primarily used to test colorblindness. In 2022, could there be a color blindness test using painting?
Twelve 8” round paintings were made inspired by the palette of the Ishihara plates and the number of plates that need to be correctly identified in order to pass the test. Spectators were joined in a color experience, as the colorblind were given corrective
lenses, so that all may see as one, and additional glasses imitating various blurs and eyesight loss were administered.
Photos: Sara Galletta
BEETURIA
2022
Watercolor on paper accordian book and beet seeds, 16 x 24 cm
Beeturia is a donation to Isernia with a temporary ephemeral viewing experience. Buried in a shallow ditch and covered in beet seeds, the work was consumed by elements and animals. As the rain passed over the work, the intensity of the alizarin crimson and magenta bled into the paper, unifying the the human experience of beeturia, an occurrence in which excrement becomes pink due to over consumption of beets in nature
2022
Acrylic & photocatalytic paint on concrete wall
8.6 x 5.35 x2.1m
The trees of Rome tell the origins of Rome, the conquests of the empire, the defense of the country during the war, the improvement of our quality of life, and will also improve the future of the city. Considering their positions on the maps, both topographical and reticulated, I Rami che Raccontano invite the viewer to follow a constantly changing map, despite being historical. Using photocatalytic paint, the mural functions as do trees, eliminating smog.
Quercia del Tasso: The trunk of a historic tree, struck by lightning in 1843, commemorated with a plaque.
The almond tree of Villa Gloria: The trunk of the surviving almond tree under which Enrico Cairoli passed, having a bullet pass through him in 1867, and into the tree.
The Paulowina of Chiesa Nuova is a tree that is usually found in parks, but exists in the cityscape thanks to the presence of a fountain next to it.
Saint Dominic's orange tree was brought from Spain to Rome in 1220, still splendid and luxuriant today.
There is a legend that the fig tree where Romulus and Remus were raised is located under Domus Augustus.
The seeds of the first peach trees were found under Metro C, which are considered to be the first ones brought to Rome from Persia.
The Canfor of Via Cernaio is a monumental tree, a symbol of the importance of secular trees, which have the same benefits as 70 young trees.
Cypress by Michelangelo: There is a legend that a cypress in the cloister of the Baths of Diocletian was planted by Michelangelo.
This project was made possible by the generous Arte in Costruzione grant by Ricci S.p.A.
Photo Credits:
Claudia Rolandi and Marta Ferro
HAI DATO L'ACQUA ALLE PIANTE?
2022, Oil Paint & Thermochromic Paint on Plexiglass, LED Strips, & Fridge
Dimensions Variable
They leave. The plants they told you to water, the fruit they told you to eat, are dying. Painting them with a black thermochromic pigment, they are preserved in darkness of the fridge. The moment they are exposed to heat, at 33 degrees, the black pigment disappears, leaving you with the vivacity of their former selves.
DO YOU HAVE A LIGHT?
2021
Oil paint on Fiat 600D
Variable Dimensions
Near Piazza Cardelli, in Via Tomacelli, the Nazis arrested Guglielmo Gullace. His wife Teresa, pregnant with their sixth child, was killed due to her attempt to bring him a cigarette. The poppies painted on the glass recall those placed on the ground by the Romans where Teresa fell. The mirrors show us Rome as it is today, thanks to the sacrifice of those who fought, to make it free again.
"Do You Have a Light?" was made possible by a grant and collaboration with the Municipality of Rome and RUFA.
Photos courtesy of Sara Galletta
