Alessandra Spranzi

The author seeks a magical and surreal situation among domestic objects. Two woman’s legs sprout from under an old table – a much loved piece of furniture that Alessandra Spranzi inherited from her grandmother and often uses for her work.

In search of new possible identities, Alessandra Spranzi produces a series of photocopied collages where she ironically inserts the image of her face in more or less improbable disguises. The collection includes the image of the artist as an astronaut and another one of the more traditional bride.

Alessandra Spranzi selects from a 1960s newspaper an image of a smug woman in a bourgeois interior, the dream of the Italian middle class during the years of the economic boom. The artist then intervenes superimposing to the picture the image of a flame introducing a disturbing element into the quiet atmosphere of the house, which is thus transformed into a claustrophobic and hostile environment.

ALESSANDRA SPRANZI uses ready-made photography, through a process of rediscovery of existing images. She collects manuals, books, advertising catalogues, scientific texts and magazines from which she cuts out images that she re-photographs, enlarges and prints, with various techniques. An act of appropriation that reveals the invisible potential of minor iconography, capable of surprising us with things we have already seen. Her works include Io? (1992-1993); Tornando a casa (1997), a cycle of images on volutes of fire inside domestic spaces; Obsoleto (2013), photomontages that bring together pages on different topics with Polaroids of small compositions of objects found by the artist on the street. In Dizionario Moderno (2014), a manual found in a flea market, the artist intervenes with words, definitions, and excerpts from other dictionaries. *She was born in 1962 in Milan, where she lives and works.