Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Mirror in the Rio Sever, 80 x 120 cm, 2017.

I am at the Obras Art Residency in Evoramonte, Portugal designing an exhibition of the work photographer Luís Branco and I have made over the last four years in Portugal. It is wonderful to look back at this large body of work. Carolien van der Laan and Ludger van der Eerden are the curators of the exhibition (with some input from me.) The exhibition will be in the lovely Igreja de São Vicente in Evora opening April 4^th 2020 and running through the end of May 2020. This exhibit will be a celebration of the unique collaboration I have formed with Luís Branco with the generous support the Obras Art Residency. The work also revels in the simple beauty of this region that I have come to love – the Alentejo. There will be more than 20 large prints in the exhibit and several smaller works. The works come from my several residencies – the first one in 2015, then 2016, 2017 and from the spring of 2019. About ½ the work has been exhibited before both here in Portugal and also in the U.S.

I have had a hard time coming to complete happiness with a title for the exhibition. Many of the titles that we have come up with in Portuguese have multiple meanings that I like but in English the word has only one meaning. News flash from December 2019. We have decided upon a title for the exhibit – The Mirror Between Us / O Espelho Entre Nós. I really like this title and thank you to everyone who helped with this!

• Luís came up with the title Encarnado which in English means Incarnate has multiple meanings in Portuguese – it means the color red (which figures in our work) and it also means “in the flesh” or embodied as well as a reference to a kind of divine incarnation. I am a little wary of the religious implications with this title but I also like the multiple meanings.
• I love the word Alento that means Breath in English but in Portuguese it also means nurturance, courage, encouragement as well as the breath or respiration. Could you say Novo Alento / New Breath???
• I like the word Renascer that in English is Reborn but also means to revive or to be rekindled. I think it also implies a renaissance of a kind. Again I am a little wary of the religious implication of this word.
• My kind friend Antonio Pliz who came up with our previous title for the exhibit Reencontrando – a / Meeting Her Again which is such a great title suggested Revigorando which means Reinvigorating and new energy, becoming stronger, remotivation.
• I also asked Antonio to translate some other titles for me. I like the idea of the work as The Breath Between Us this is O Fôlego Entre Nós or The Breath Around Us is O Fôlego Ao Nosso Redor
• Here is another one Antonio translated for me which I like a lot The Space Between Us is O Espaço Entre Nós. Maybe it is a little conceptual but I like the idea that a photograph is the space between the photographer and the subject (me in this case) and it also becomes the space between the viewer or audience and the subject and the photographer. It is both a space of intimacy and a space of separation.
• I also like the idea of using the word echo in the title. At the end of the blog I talk how the concept of “echo” is present in the work. I am not sure if An Echo of Her is properly translated as Um Eco Dela??
• My dear friend Cydney Payton who has been involved with this work from the beginning added this possible title (in the comments on this blog) : “Why not call the exhibition, Mirror Image? That’s what it is. Whether there is a mirror in the actual image or not, they are mirrors of your inner self, mirrors of other artist’s work as inspiration, mirrors of love, mirrors to an outward audience and an inward expression. There is also the mirror stage—which would not be a title bad either. These days I like straight titles.” Mirror Image  is Imagem em Espelho in Portuguese.

So if you have any response to these words or titles let me know please, or any suggestions!! Por favor! Following are a few of the images that will be in the exhibit in Evora.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Face-up in the Rio Sever, 80 x 120 cm, 2017.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Canyon Encarnado/ Red Canyon, 120 x 80 cm, 2017.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Mirror at Santa Susana, 80 x 120 cm, 2017.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Goddess or Witch/ Deusa ou Bruxa, 80 x 53 cm, 2019.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, 25^th of April, 80 x 53 cm, 2019.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Viewpoint 1/ Miradouro 1, 80 x 120 cm, 2019.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Viewpoint 2/ Miradouro 2, 80 x 120 cm, 2019.

 

Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco, Nude Chair, 80 x 120 cm, 2019.

While looking over all the images of the last four years, I have also been looking back at my own writing about the work. I found this excerpt from my blog post of January 22^nd, 2018. I was writing about the concept of echo and/ or the mythical figure of Echo in my collaborative work with Luís Branco. So I am just going to quote myself here 🙂

“Echo is a sound, but she is also an answer, a mirror image, a parallel, a reiteration, a repetition, and a response. She is hidden from normal sight, a reverberation only available to a few.

In my own experiences in Portugal, I have repeatedly “met” a mythical or divine feminine force or power in the landscapes and waterscapes of the beautiful Alentejo. My premise is that in these encounters with the feminine, I have been continually meeting and re-meeting echoes of different aspects of myself. My collaborator, photographer Luís Branco, has documented these “meetings” within Portugal’s beautiful environments of water and earth. His eye and the magic mirror of his camera have helped me see various aspects of feminine space held within myself, which would have been impossible for me to see on my own.

Luís and I have talked about the phenomenon of “Echo” or “echo” in our work together. Our working process is intuitive and open-ended and in a sense enchanted and alchemical. We both respond to each site viscerally and emotionally. We use fabrics to cover, reveal or extend my body. We use a chair or a mirror as a point of reference or reflection. We have created open-ended narratives in these natural environments – echoing each other in gesture and image. The echo continually reverberates in multiple images and different sites, telling different stories. Echo herself might be revealed in these images, which in turn reveal “me” – my aging body, my face, my emotions. My Echo is older, she is strong, she is vulnerable, joyful, pensive, and sensual. She echoes life and death and transformation in these images. “

There will be many more images in the exhibition. Luís Branco and I have made a lot of work over the last four years. I have  more than a week left here in Portugal this visit. We will be printing the work in Lisbon and I will be back at the end of March to help install the work in the beautiful Igreja de São Vicente in Evora with Ludger and Carolien. The exhibit will open April 4^th !!