Between Earth and Sky III, 33 x 22 in., archival digital print on Hahnemühle Baryta, Sherry Wiggins and Luís Filipe Branco, 2023.

I have been thinking (again) about the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis. Photographer Luís Branco and I are exhibiting a series of four images that portray me as the goddess Isis with golden wings in the series titled “Between Earth and Sky” in a group show at Michael Warren Contemporary in Denver. The exhibit will be on display from August 1 to September 7, with an opening reception on Thursday, August 1, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Luís and I created this series during our residency at the Cortiço Artist Residency in Portugal in February of 2023. During that time, we produced many performative photographs in which I embodied and channeled Isis as well as the infamous Queen Cleopatra VII. As most of you know, I do a deep dive into the history and mythology of the heroines I choose to embody and perform.

The Family of Osiris, 874 – 850 BCE, 3.5 x 2.5 in., gold, lapis lazuli and glass, Louvre Museum. (Isis on the right and Osiris on the left, with their son Horus in the center).

There are MANY gods and goddesses in ancient Egyptian religion and mythology. I do not deign to know them all. Isis arose in ancient Egyptian religion and mythology during the Old Kingdom period (2686 – 2160 BCE). She was the loving wife and queen of her brother, the god king Osiris, and she was the nurturing mother of the god king Horus. She was a principal deity for the living and the dead, a role model for all women and a magical healer who cured the sick and was involved with the rites of the dead. And she had wings.

Isis on the Sarcophagus of Ramses III, c. twelfth century BCE, Louvre Museum.

Isis arrived in the creation story of the Heliopolitan Ennead. The Heliopolitan Ennead was the primordial family of nine gods and goddesses worshiped originally in the ancient city of Heliopolis. This family originated with the sun god, Atum; his children, Shu and Tufnet; and their children, Nut and Geb. Isis was one of four children born to sky goddess Nut and earth god Geb. I love that Egyptian mythology attributes the sky to the female goddess and the earth to the male (which is the reverse in most Western cosmologies). Osiris was the firstborn of Nut and Geb, and he would inherit the throne of the earth from his father. Next to be born was the god Set (who apparently had a violent birth), followed by Isis and her twin sister, Nephthys. The Ennead ruled from the time of the Old Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Period (c. 332 – 30 BCE). As I said before, there are MANY gods and goddesses in ancient Egyptian religion and mythology; Isis managed to endure throughout. FYI: Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Period in Egypt, and she was considered Isis’s living incarnation.

It was said that Isis and her brother Osiris fell in love in the womb; they were seen as a divine couple who completed one another in sexual union and partnership. At the beginning of their mythical story, Osiris and Isis reigned together as benevolent rulers. Osiris was known as the god of agriculture and fertility, and Isis was known as the goddess of weaving and of making bread and beer. They were the divine engine behind the incredibly fertile Nile Valley.

Osiris and Isis’s brother Set was overcome with envy and fixated on usurping the throne from Osiris. Set assumed that Osiris and Isis would inevitably have a child who would become the heir to the throne; he was determined to prevent the birth of that child. He plotted to kill Osiris before a child could be conceived. During a royal festival, Set presented the court guests with an elaborately decorated chest and told them that whoever could fit perfectly inside it would receive the chest as a prize. Guests took turns trying to fit inside the chest, but to no avail. Until it was Osiris’s turn. Osiris successfully climbed inside the chest and fit perfectly. Set’s minions rushed forward to lock him inside. They cast the chest into the Nile and left Osiris to drown in its currents. The chest was now a coffin, Isis a widow and Set the new god king.

She Has Wings I, 22 x 33 in., archival digital print on Hahnemühle Baryta, Sherry Wiggins and Luís Filipe Branco, 2023.

Isis, rather than sitting in passive devastation, took flight, determined to find her husband’s body. In the image above, “She Has Wings I,” I am standing on the grounds of the ruins of the castle at Montemor-o-Novo in Portugal, imagining and embodying the goddess queen in her quest to recover her lover-brother-husband-king.

There are varying accounts of how Isis found Osiris’s body and resurrected him. All tell of her persistence, her ability to fly and her magical skills in restoring Osiris in some form. Some say Isis found Osiris’s body on the riverbank and gathered up his flesh to try to restore him. Set learned of Isis’s feat and, in a rage, tore Osiris’s cadaver into fourteen parts and scattered them across Egypt.

Nephthys and Isis Watching Over the Corpse of Osiris at the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.

Isis refused to give up. She and her sister Nephthys turned themselves into birds (kites) and flew all over Egypt to retrieve Osiris’s dismembered parts. Next comes the amazing part/s: According to one telling, Osiris’s penis was missing, so Isis fabricated his missing member as a golden rod. Isis and Nephthys, still in the form of the birds, placed Osiris’s restored body on a funeral bed, and Isis enfolded Osiris within her wings and breathed life back into his body. Osiris was not literally alive, but, apparently, he was alive enough to impregnate Isis (with the golden penis!) as she hovered over him in her winged form. Love this story!

Between Earth and Sky IV, 33 x 22 in., archival digital print on Hahnemühle Baryta, Sherry Wiggins and Luís Filipe Branco, 2023.

Osiris became the king of the afterlife, and Isis held his heir to the throne in her womb. Isis knew it was her son’s destiny to avenge his father’s death and defeat his usurper, Set. She traveled to the marshlands of the Nile Delta, cloaking her pregnancy in secrecy to avoid harm to the child. She gave birth to Horus while in hiding.

The Goddess Isis and Her Son Horus, Ptolemaic Period 332 – 30 BCE, 6 11/16 in. x 2 in. x 3 1/16 in., faience, Metropolitan Museum.

Isis’s hiding spot was a dangerous place: there were venomous serpents and scorpions. To keep Horus safe, she learned magic healing methods from Thoth, god of knowledge and wisdom, and from local women. This knowledge (in addition to her putting Osiris’s pieces together again) made her known as the goddess of magic and healing. Isis raised Horus to manhood in secrecy, protecting him and caring for him. Then it was time for Isis to help Horus make his claim to the throne. Their story goes on with turbulent battles between Set and Horus, with Isis working her magic behind the scenes and with Horus’s eventual defeat of Set and claiming of the throne.

Aegis with the Head of Isis or Hathor, 924 – 600 BCE, 8 7/8 in. x 7 1/16 in., bronze, Metropolitan Museum.

I love this sculpture’s representation of Isis and her whole mythology. She is powerful; loving; perseverant; compassionate; an aid to the sick, the dying and the dead; a sexy queen; a mother-sister-wife-goddess.

Isis, Out of Darkness I, 39 x 27 in., archival digital print on Hahnemühle Baryta, Sherry Wiggins and Luís Filipe Branco, 2023.

Isis, Out of Darkness I, II, III, installation at BMoCA, archival digital prints on Hahnemühle Baryta, Sherry Wiggins and Luís Filipe Branco, 2023. (photo by Robert Kittila)

Embodying and portraying this awesome goddess with Luís in performative photographs was ambitious, a lot of hard work and took some magic, too. We showed the black-and-white “Isis, Out of Darkness” series in the exhibition “Performing Self” curated by Jane Burke at BMoCA last spring (alongside several series of Cleopatra). I can’t tell you how many hundreds of images Luís shot of me / Isis with our golden wings on the grounds of the castle at Montemor-o-Novo, at first light, at last light and in darkness. I love the series of four images “Between Earth and Sky” that we selected and that we are showing at Michael Warren Contemporary. Ron Landucci, of Infinite Editions, produced beautiful, mounted prints for us, and I will post the installation of them when they go up. We shot this series one morning at first light with the beautiful gray-blue clouds surrounding me / Isis. The one below is my favorite. I hope you can come see the work in person.

Between Earth and Sky I, 33 x 22 in., archival digital print on Hahnemühle Baryta, Sherry Wiggins and Luís Filipe Branco, 2023.