Not all cleaning is false

“For me, cleaning is one such ritual, inextricable from our sense of touch and intuition.” To artist Alessandra Pozzuoli, cleaning and touch go beyond being just a simple action but rather “allow us to lean into intuition, communicate without words, and remain connected to those who are gone.” She unpacks this concept in her solo exhibition, on view now at Whippersnapper Gallery, titled Not all cleaning is false, an intimate installation featuring multimedia works made in response to her experiences mourning her maternal grandmother. 

Last summer, Pozzuoli spent her time as one of AGO’s artist-researchers in the AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange Program. For her research, she did a deep dive into the current cleaning practices at the AGO, looking at everything from how artworks are conserved to how galleries are cared for as public spaces. The extensive research she did during her digital mentorship helped to inform and build the works she displays in this exhibition. 

Not all cleaning is false, Cappatoi (To wrap around the body), Site Activation, Whippersnapper Gallery, 2022. Photo Jordan Dawson.

Through a selection of video, performance, sculpture and site-specific drawings, she investigates how rituals use somatic and sensory engagements to spark memories, help navigate grief, and feel human connections. A major work in the exhibition is her two-part video Love and Water, which shows her using Felce Azzurra soap, moulded in the shape of her grandmother’s hands, in an invented washing ritual. The Italian branded soap is the same as the one her family used on her grandmother when caring for her towards the end of her life. In the video, as the soap hand breaks down from the lather, you see Pozzuoli verbally repeat portions of a funeral mass and eventually express gratitude by intermittently saying thank you. As you ponder on the ritual, you find the lines between who is doing the cleaning and being cleaned becomes blurred. Whose hands are caring for who? From touch to smell, the cleaning ritual using soap-hand “relics” jogs memories and feelings of connectedness for Pozzuoli as she reminisces about her grandmother’s presence. 

“In putting together this exhibit, I have had my own moments of trepidation and doubt,” Pozzuoli explains, “while also experiencing some amazing moments of connection between myself and viewers as they pass by the space and stop to look in at the work. Those moments, however brief, have been very comforting. I am trying my best to be fully present in the temporary, in those small moments of tenderness.”

Not all cleaning is false, Installation view, Whippersnapper Gallery, 2022. Photo by Jordan Dawson.

In addition to Love and Water, a drawing titled Cappatoi (To wrap around the body) illustrates a housecoat that belonged to the artist’s late grandmother. Written alongside it is a portion of a conversation between Pozzuoli’s mother and grandmother. A recreation of the drawing was performed live in front of the passersby on Saturday, March 26 in a single sitting. With traces of being lived-in and worn, Pozzuoli sees the coat as a “relic of mortality” and views the live session as an act of memorialization. The hand soaps featured in the video Love and Water, one used and unused, will also be on display for visitors to see up close and personal.

On view until April 30, Not all cleaning is false was developed in response to Whippersnapper Gallery’s open call for curatorial and artist projects, Intuition Against the Grain. To view the exhibition online, click here. 

Interested in applying for the AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange Program that artist Alessandra Pozzuoli was part of last summer? Applications are open now until April 25  for the 2022 cohort. Three paid research mentorships are available this year. For more details and to apply, visit https://ago.ca/emerging-artists-program.