SANDRA BACCHI

Prints from Watermelons Are Not Strawberries are available in two sizes:

13 x 19 inch (33 x 48 cm) | ed. 7 + 2ap | archival pigment print

24 x 36 inch (61 x 91 cm) | ed. 7 + 2ap | archival pigment print

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ACQUIRING FINE ART PRINTS.

To buy Watermelons Are Not Strawberries Photobook or to learn more about the photobook, please click HERE.

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“When I couldn’t eat strawberries, I pretended watermelons were strawberries.” — Said 5 years old Vitória Bacchi to a friend who also had multiple food allergies

In Watermelons Are Not Strawberries, I portray my inner transformation and pursuit of self-awareness while navigating the challenges related to parenting. The black and white photographs blend conceptual and documentary photography that reveals the shapes and shadows of my love for motherhood as it merges with a lifetime of my personal anxiety.

Over six years, the work grew into a story of resilience, hope, and mutual support between my children and me. In this creative process, I found the strength to heal old wounds by examining universal feelings such as sadness, happiness, and love.

My two daughters were challenged with severe food allergies and learning differences in their early years. In helping them cope with their adversities, i was forced to delve into my dark places to confront the deeply entrenched fear, shame, and guilt that stem from my then-undiagnosed dyslexia.

I didn't want my girls to feel the constant neurotic need to fit into the social norms, as I did my whole life. So, we established our own “normal” way to live our lives, creating a sense of complicity and empathy among each other, building a stronger relationship.

While I was advocating for my daughters, I learned how to advocate for myself. While I was trying to understand them, I deeply understood myself.

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This series has been shown on:

Solo Exhibition

2022

- Watermelons Are Not Strawberries - Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA (Sept 10th - Oct.15th)

Two Person Exhibition

2020

- Disability Visibility - Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography, Curated by Shannon Benine. University of La Verne, CA (Apr. 03 - May 15)

Selected Group Exhibition

2021

- “Anthropology of Motherhood” - McDonough Museum of Art, curated by Amy Bowman-McElhone and Fran Flaherty

- “Creation | Creativity, a show about mothers” - Front Room Gallery, curated by Stephen Mallon, New York, NY, 2021 (May 1 - July 31)

2020

- Anthropology of Motherhood - Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival and Carlow University, co-curated by Fran Flaherty and Amy Bowman-McElhone, and curatorial assistant by Katie Winter, Pittsburgh, PA (Oct. 19 - Jan. 29/2020)

- Paraty em Foco 2020 - 16th International Photography Festival, Paraty, RJ, Brazil

- Mastermind: Accessibility - Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Media. Juried by Pittsburgh Emerging Art Leaders network. Pittsburgh, PA

2019

- Com os olhos no Céu da Coca – Centro cultural Correios, curated by Sheila Oliveira, São Paulo, BR

- 25th Annual Juried Exhibition - Griffin Museum of Photography, Juried by Julie Grahame, Winchester, MA

- Intentional Spaces - Photo Place Gallery, juried by Laura Moya, Middlebury, VT

- Dive In - Don't Take Pictures, Juried by Kat Kiernan, online

- The curated fridge - spring 2019, Juried by Ashly Stohl and David Carol, Boston, MA

2017

- Stories - PH21 Gallery, Juried by Zsolt Bátori, Juror’s choice, Budapest, HU

- Surreal Photography exhibition – The Passaporte, Juried by Sarah Sudhoff, Honorable Mention, (online)

- Black/White - A Smith Gallery, Juried by Elizabeth Avedon, Johnson City, TX

- 35th Annual Juried Membership Exhibition - Houston Center for Photography, Juried by Rebecca Senf, Houston, TX

- Black + White - The Center for Fine Art Photography, Juried by Ann M. Jastrab, Fort Collins, CO;

- She – A Smith Gallery, Juried by Kat Kiernan, Johnson City, TX

Acquired by:

- Private collectors.

Entre (Between), 2023

Entre luzes e sombras

passados e futuros

herança e desejo,

meu contorno se faz, refaz e desfaz

Danço com a luz

no infinito do instante

e me desvelo

uma

e

várias

- Tati Pi (Compositor e irmã por escolha)

Between lights and shadows

past and future

inheritance and desire,

my contour is made, remade, and unmade

I dance with the light

in the infinity of the moment

and I am unveiled

as one

and

as many

- Tati Pi (Brazilian songwriter and my siter by choice)

Entre (Between) features a 2’x430’ continuous film strip running perpendicular to a white wall with 240 photographic portraits of people I share blood with and my husband, who helped me build a new lineage. The directed lights from above enhance the images and suggest how ephemeral life and memory can be.

I’m Not a Ghost is Bacchi’s photographic series created in collaboration with Aullar Mateo (American, b.1982). The act of stretching against restrictive body standards, physically represented by opaque vinyl sheeting, stemmed from shared conversations around the constrictions imposed by binary concepts of gender and sexuality. These images acknowledge the profoundly personal and transformative journey Mateo solidifies in their glassmaking.

Provoked by curator Alyssa Velazquez for the exhibition Smash the ceiling, floors, and walls; take the broken shards and blow it back, I’m Not a Ghost captures a body reaching towards and reflecting back on an often times painful journey of metamorphosis. The co-created performance piece and its visual documentation by Bacchi and Mateo is a work of communal creativity and storytelling—art that goes beyond disciplinary distinctions or individual praxis.

The House We Live In, 2023, is a 6x14 feet photo collage mural made of seventy-five individual fused glass and photographic decals. The piece was created in collaboration with seven people from different walks of life that have helped me to build a sense of home in the United States; I invited Scott Andrew, Keyla Cook, Kati Doebler, Brent Nakamoto, Divya Rao Heffley, Zim Syed and Alyssa Velazquez to curate photographs from their family albums and digital archives to respond to the prompt "What makes you who you are?" I then edited, processed and printed the images on photographic decals before transferring them onto glass sheets. To add extra layers to the narrative, I used different glass techniques and firing processes to achieve various textures and distortions.

The House We Live In was created during my residency at the Brew House Art Distillery program 2022-2023, and shown on the Rip, Repair, repeat, the 2023 Distillery Group Exhibition.

Special thanks to Wissmach Glass for supporting my artistic practice by donating all the glass used in the work.

Dimension: 37(h) x 65 (w) x 4(d) inch

Please contact me if you are interested in commission individual pieces similar to Seeking Nowhere pieces, or are interested in acquiring Seeking Nowhere as a whole.

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In Seeking Nowhere I investigate the sense of belonging that immigrants seek when they leave their homeland. It is composed of 35 photographs, capturing 5 different sea horizons, each represented seven times. The pieces are made by kilnforming, laminating, and coldworking glass with photographic decals. Each image has been manipulated using a variety of materials, techniques, and firing processes. By controlling the heat of the kiln I have achieved different textures and distortions. The result has created a group of pieces that look similar while each of them conveys a unique perspective.

I believe that it takes enormous courage and strength for an immigrant to leave behind everything they know in order to explore new horizons. For each of these travelers the experience is unique – even when the sea horizons are the same.

Seeking Nowhere was created during my artist in residence at pittsburgh glass center in 2019-2020.

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Accompanying the Seeking Nowhere glass piece, an audio interview piece is reproduced in exhibitions. Simultaneously, the viewer can visually experience the different sea horizons and listening to stories about the richness and challenges of being exposed to more than one culture.

Listen to the audio HERE

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Seeking Nowhere has been shown on:

Balanced Response, 2022, Robert Morris University, juried by Andrew Y. Ames and Christine Holtz, Pittsburgh, PA.

Push and Pull, 2021, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, curated by Grace Chin, Pittsburgh, PA;

The United Exhibition, 2020, Pittsburgh Glass Center, curated by Johanna Lasner, Pittsburgh, PA;

© sandra bacchi 2020, all rights reserved.

Glass and photographic decal | 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 inch

© Sandra Bacchi 2023, all rights reserved.

Glass and photographic decal | 8 x 8 inch

© Sandra Bacchi 2021, all rights reserved.

She lapped against the shore, restless like the sea, ready for any adventure, that blew along her way – Atticus

Glass and photographic decal | 8 x 10 inch

© Sandra Bacchi 2021, all rights reserved.

Glass and photographic decal | group of pieces is approx. 16x16 inch

© Sandra Bacchi 2023, all rights reserved.

Prints from When the Wind Blows East are now available in two sizes:

12 x 18 inch (20 x 30.5 cm) | ed. 7 + 2ap | archival pigment

20 x 30 inch (51 x 76 cm) | ed. 7 + 2ap | archival pigment

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ACQUIRING FINE ART PRINTS.

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The When the Wind Blows East series catches a glimpse of my quest to share my heritage with my daughters, so they can embrace their individuality, learn about their ancestors, and be proud of their multicultural upbringing.

The photographs were taken in 2017 in Hungary when I took my them to meet my family, especially the last immediate family member I had. Gisele was 96 years old and lived in the same house my father, George Jonas, lived in as a child. She has kept the place intact, so I felt traveling in time, as if I could feel my deceased father singing, dancing, and eating his favorite Hungarian food with us.

My father left Budapest in 1945 for a life of uncertainty when the Soviet Union took over Eastern Europe. As a result, I grew up listening to heartbreaking stories about World War II and the fantastic adventures he experienced prior to settling down in Brazil, where I was born. Even though his life fascinated me, I can relate to his stories better now that I have also left my homeland.

I went back to Hungary looking for my father. Little did I know that I was, in fact, searching for myself. Hopefully, by making these images, I have given my daughters a way to find him.

Prints from We Are All in This Together are now available in one size:

4 1/2 x 12 INCH (10.7 X 30.5 CM) | ED. 15 + 2AP | ARCHIVAL PIGMENT

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ACQUIRING FINE ART PRINTS

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While living in Manhattan for two years, I observed people sharing the busiest public spaces in New York City: the subway trains. From an ethnology point of view, I compared and analyzed the characteristics of different individuals and the relationships between them.

The photographs for We Are All in This Together were taken between 2015 and 2016 without the subjects’ knowledge, in order to achieve the desired spontaneity. I used the camera on my mobile phone to blend more seamlessly into the environment. I focused on the lower part of the bodies, to direct viewers’ attention to body language and other physical details, revealing a glimpse of each subject's personality. Observing the private moments of individuals in the shared public space of the subway led me to appreciate how challenging and complex it can be for members of a diverse population to marry their private and public persona.

After experiencing the catastrophic COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, I look back to this series with different eyes. I was perplexed to see an empty Manhattan trying to survive and amazed by how the New Yorkers were able to social distance in a dense city where one constantly navigates the thin line that divides what is public and what is private.

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This series has been shown on and acquired by:

- Photography Now 2017 Exhibition, 2017, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY

- Metro 31, 2017, City Without Walls, Juried by Larry Ossei-Mensah, Siddhartha Mitter, Margaret O’Reilly, Newark, NJ

- Private collectors.

Prints from My Dyslexia are available in two sizes:

15 x 22 inch (38 x 56 cm) | ed. 10 + 2ap | archival pigment

28 x 42 inch (71 x 106 cm) | ed. 5 + 2ap | archival pigment

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ACQUIRING FINE ART PRINTS.

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The photographs in the series My Dyslexia celebrate my brain and who I am.

It wasn't until I learned about my Dyslexia in 2015 that I could really understand the meaning of photography in my life. Photography is my way to express the feelings that come from deep inside my heart - where words don't exist. My photographs tell me who I am, just like Dyslexia defines me.

Being dyslexic means that I have a hard time reading and writing. When I read and write, it feels like my brain is in slow motion because it takes me more time to process the letters in my brain than someone without Dyslexia. Also, It is a tremendous effort for me to read a book for too long, and my spelling is a joke. However, the positive side of my Dyslexia is that it makes me more observant about the world around me, forces me to be curious to learn new things and think about different possibilities.

My passion for using wide lenses, my obsession for patterns, my search for organic shapes, and my love for the light registered in my photographs express how I envision the world around me: as a complex whole, not fragments. I deconstruct the usual and customary ways of seeing and understanding the world to reveal an unexpected perspective. In my eyes, the ordinary reveals itself in its striking and captivating distinctiveness.

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This series has been shown on and acquired by:

- Procession, 2016, Pop Up Show, Foley Gallery, curated by Gisela Gueiros, New York, NY

- Private collectors.

© Sandra Bacchi 2018, all rights reserved.