Image by Rui Fernandes – a view of the Obras Foundation near Evoramonte, Portugal (with a drone camera)

I have been processing my recent residency in Portugal at the Obras Foundation and the work I accomplished there and how Helena Almeida’s work has affected my work. I have also been thinking about my residency in 2014 in India at the Sanskriti Foundation and my profound connection and interest in Nasreen Mohamedi’s work and the work of my own that I exhibited in my studio last summer that resulted from my “time” with Nasreen. And… going back even further – to the many years I spent traveling to Palestine with my dear 6+ colleagues doing art projects there. How amazing it has been to travel and meet wonderful artists and people from all over the world – my friends and artists in Palestine, my artist friends in India, in South Korea, in Australia, in beautiful Portugal, in Italy, in Holland, in Japan, in Israel, as well as the wonderful art community I have here in Colorado and the United States. I feel very blessed to have these relationships and experiences – which are based on the common joys and struggles of being an artist. I miss those of you who are far away, each and every one of you.

And with every major encounter, every trip, every new relationship there is a processing and integration of that time and an ending in a certain way before you can begin again.

And with this specific practice I have undertaken with “remarkable women artists of the 20^th century” I still have much work to do here in my own studio in Boulder, Colorado. So I am looking forward to 2016 as a year for working more on these projects that I began in India and in Portugal. I have no plans for new residencies in amazing far-off places, and no new examinations of other remarkable women artists are planned for 2016. I want to extend the practices and works that I have started with both Nasreen and with Helena as “my guides”. I also have several exhibits both here in Colorado and abroad in 2016. So I look forward to 2016 and a new beginning.

Speaking of endings- the images below are from the last photo-shoot I did at the Obras Foundation in Portugal in October with Rui Fernandes operating the drone camera and Cydney Payton directing and photographer Luis Branco overseeing. We were working on the tile terrace near the studio building. We lay down large pieces of primed white canvas on top of the tile terrace. I see these images as “studies” or sketches for a body of work in progress – not finished work. The drone camera Rui was using was not a high-resolution camera either. I like the gestural quality and the playfulness of these images and I am planning on re-shooting these here in Colorado with photographer Robert Kittila (and hopefully with Cydney Payton’s direction) in the spring when it is warm enough. Also check out the second and third figure and their shadows in a few of the images – those are Cydney “arranging” me and the black fabric and Luis’s figure and shadow is in one image at the bottom.

Anyway happy holy days, happy winter solstice, happy new year to all of you near to me and far away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been sorting through all the images that photographer Luis Branco took (with me as the subject) while I was in Portugal. There are many significant images here and a “body” of work that I am quite excited by.

The images on top of the castle at Evoramonte are the best ones yet. Luis accomplishes a beautiful sense of form and space in these images. The architecture is abstract – you can’t tell that it is a castle in Portugal, but you get this sense of the structure and the vast horizon. The subject – the female form or Me in black cloth is alternately confined by the architecture, but also takes control of the space and finds her own place and power. It is also clear that She/Me is an older female. The swath of black cloth gives strength to the female form and also offers a sense of a protected feminine space – like the mantle of a Queen. In the image where I face the camera with the black cloth over my face, Me/She again uses the cloth as a veil of both power and protection. In the vertical image on the ground – She/Me faces the camera with hair covering My/Her face – asserting Her/My own sense of feminine space and connection to the ground and horizon.

Here I have posted a selection of 7 of the images that I particularly like and indicate the direction of this project. I am very thankful for the support granted me by the Obras Foundation in Portugal to accomplish this work and also for the wonderful collaboration that Luis Branco and I have made.

 

 

  

  

above – a few images from one of the gates at the castle at Evoramonte, Luis Branco will convert to black and white (not sure if I will use these or not but they are a teaser for my final project in Portugal)

I came back from Porto ready to finish my work here at Obras. I worked with Luis Branco the other day – looking for the best images at the castle that he shot a few weeks ago. This is truly a collaboration. He will do the black and white conversions – we both have to think about it and give the images some breath. I think the images are really beautiful and they diverge from Helena quite a bit – which was always my intent. I am relating to space and an abstracted architecture in a different way than she does – outside in the world. I am showing only one of these images below because, as I said, they need to breath and be edited. I will print them large. Cydney suggested the title Horizons which I really like. I think it is the same spelling in Portuguese.

above: one image from the series Horizons Sherry Wiggins and Luis Branco, 2015 (you can click on the above image and it will show larger)

Yesterday I repeated the “inhabited geometries” with the cloth constructions on the terrace of the studio at Obras with Rui Fernandes operating the drone with a camera – to get the birdseye perspective. Directora Cydney Payton was coaching my choreography and movement in the geometric shapes. I don’t have the images back from that shoot. Luis Branco is a little worried about the quality of the drone camera for what I want. I might have to repeat this series “inhabited geometries” at home with a scaffolding and with Robert Kitilla shooting them. But this is a real possibility, and I have more of an idea of what I want out of the “inhabited geometries.” In general this residency and experience in Portugal and at Obras Foundation has been wonderful, fun, and lots of hard productive work.

We leave Obras Sunday and will spend 2 days in Lisbon then home on Tuesday! This is probably my last blog post from Portugal 😦

   

Helena Almeida, Untitled, 1969

I love these early “paintings.” Just in Porto, Portugal for the opening of Helena Almeida’s retrospective at the Serralves Foundation – “Helena Almeida: My Work Is My Body, My Body Is My Work.” I am so glad I came to see this remarkable body of work. Excuse my I phone pictures. Just a few of my favorite pieces that I have not yet shown on the blog. Wow – she is a wonderful and remarkable artist of the 20th and 21st century!

the two images below show the wonderful series titled Embrace or Abraco in Portoguese. Helena Almeida embraces her husband architect Artur Rosa (who has taken all the photographs of Almeida from the beginning to now). As the director of the National Theatre in Porgtugal told me – “It is also a love story”

At the Teatro Nacional Sao Joao:

http://www.tnsj.pt/home/espetaculo.php?intShowID=867

   

I did not meet her, I have a deep regard and feeling for her.

this short video was made on top of Evoramonte Castle in Portugal with a drone with a camera mounted on it

I want to thank camera man Rui Fernandes for operating the drone and camera so skillfully. I also want to thank photographer and producer Luis Branco for setting this up for me. Thank you to Luis Pintasilgo for his wonderful assistance too. This was an experiment and a big surprise that I got to “inhabit” the castle at Evoramonte and then on top of it have a drone take images! Much thanks goes to Ludger and Carolien of the Obras Foundation Portugal who allowed me this wonderful opportunity. I am not sure if I will use the video or the stills from the drone in my final project (a little Game of Throney) but they give a fantastic sense of the space. Check out the shadow of the castle on the right.  Luis Branco took 550 still images of me at the castle and castle grounds with his Nikon 800 – that I am sorting through. Fantastic images – but I need to edit etc.. Only 2 more weeks in Portugal and it’s raining cats and dogs now!

Here are 25 selected images from the 659 images that photographer Luis Branco took in the studio at the Obras Foundation in Portugal where I am working, no editing yet – just cropping. I hope to make this into a suite of 5 images of “inhabited geometries.”  After this set of images I left the studio and went to the castle. This is departing from Helena Almeida’s methodology of working in the studio always. I was discussing my interests and methods as opposed to Almeida’s methods and interests with Cyd. She said something like this – “she (Helena) creates the object with her body, and you (Sherry) relate to the space of the object with your body.” Perhaps this relates to the fact that Almeida was trained as a painter and I am trained as a sculptor and in architecture and as an installation artist. Luis Pintasilgo assisted and Cydney directed me in gestures and performance. Luis Branco the photographer had to go up and down the ladder many times for the 659 images. I am very grateful to all three of them. I will now take these ideas and constructions into the landscape surrounding Obras and the castle.

Please read the blog I posted today as well – “proposal accepted by the owners of the castle at Evoramonte”  My proposal was accepted to photograph at the castle at Evoramonte. The following images are some scouting shots I took yesterday to get ideas for placing the fabric constructions and most probably myself on and around the the castle. No dragons yet …. The castle was built in 1531 and designed by the well-known architects and brothers – Diogo De Arruda and Francisco De Arruda who designed many buildings in Portugal – among them the famous Belem tower in Lisbon. The walled town surrounding the castle is much older.

above – a model of the walled city at Evoramonte with the beautiful 16th century castle at the top

working title of project – stone ruin tree castle

The “owner of the castle” specifcally (Direcção Regional de Cultura do Alentejo: Ana Cristina Pais) has given me permission to do this project. I will be at the Obras Foundation near Evoramonte for the month of October. I have brought several fabric constructions made of black and red materials that are cut and sewn into geometric shapes – a circle, a square, a rectangle, a rosette and a big swath of black cloth and long pieces of red cloth.

The beauty of the landscape, the many historic buildings, the stone monuments and the unusual architecture of Evoramonte Castle all call my attention and my camera. I propose to drape these fabric constructions on several of the significant objects and places between Obras and the Evoramonte castle and take photographs. I will place myself within the photograph sometimes as well. I would like to start with the solstice stone at Obras and perhaps finish on the rooftop of Evoramonte Tower and take many pictures along the way.

I appreciate all the assistance of the Obras Foundation in realizing my project in Portugal. Ludger van der Eerden and Carolien van der Laan have made this project possible. I also hope that the Portuguese photographer Luis Branco will take many of the images for me and with me. Curator, writer, dreamer Cydney Payton is with me all the way.

above left: Helena Almeida, Pintura Habitada, 1977

above right: Sherry Wiggins, “test” not painted blue yet, 2015

The above image of Helena Almeida’s work from 1977 on the left is shown with an image that was taken of me in my studio in Boulder just before I left (that I have not printed and painted with blue yet.) This is part of my process of “getting in the mood” to be inspired by the work of Almeida. I use this process of copying Almeida’s gestures to get in a more performative space. This is part of what I want to learn from her. I like how she is subject in her own work. It breaks down notions of the self and authorship. It is both serious and there is lightness to it as well. I am not sure how far I will take using my own body in the work, but I will start off with this notion and her inspiration.

above left: Helena Almeida, (I will find the title and the date)

above right: Sherry Wiggins, “test,”2015

I love the big black fabric that Helena used in this work, and she has used it in other work as well. I am diverging from Almeida’s work with the big cloth constructions Bella Newell made for me in Boulder. My fabric is black and red. I will paint blue on certain parts of the photographs after I print them. As I have said before – these colors and forms are based on my own geometric drawings from 2013. Red and blue and black have been common in my own work as well as in Almeida’s. Another bond I have with her.

above: in the studio at Obras

Carolien and Ludger have arranged for a photographer, Luis Blanco, to come and take these photographs in the studio for me on Thursday. I have laid two big pieces of primed canvas on the studio floor. I hope that the photographer can get up high enough on the ladder to get the top view I want. I am also hoping he has some good lights. I want to have him photograph these cloth constructions on the red tile patio outside the studio as well.

Next I hope to start taking these cloth constructions out into the landscape and surroundings and perhaps to the castle…

above: outside the studio at Obras

above left: Helena Almeida, Corte Secreto, 1981

above right: Sherry Wiggins, “test”, 2015

STONE RUIN TREE CASTLE

I got out my Nikon in the early morning here at the Obras residency, this is all right around the little house I am staying in!