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!

above: solstice stone near my little house at Obras

Cydney and I picked up our rental car in Lisbon on Monday and drove to the residency in the country where we will spend 5 weeks. It is beautiful rolling hills with cork trees and olive trees and vineyards everywhere. The region is called the Alentejo region in central south Portugal just a few hours east of Lisbon, renown for its wine.

The founders Ludger and Carolien greeted us at Obras. They have created a beautiful residency and place for artists in an old farmstead they have completely rebuilt, using the existing structures. Thank you Amy Clay for suggesting this place! I gave them both a hug from you.

Ludger showed us both to our accommodations and my studio. Cydney is staying in an apartment in the old farmhouse with a lovely porch and view of the countryside.

I have been given the little casa up the hill that is very possibly the ruins of an old chapel. There is a remarkable ancient stone outside my door (pictured above) which points directly south on the summer solstice. It is lovely to have this privacy and space to live and be inspired by. I would like to work in the landscape here at Obras later on in the residency. Here are some pictures of mi casa and also the swimming pool, beautiful strange flower and places around the grounds of Obras.

I also have a large studio to work in. I will start Part 1 of my projects here at Obras with my “inhabited drawings” that I started in my studio in Boulder with the cloth constructions that Bella Newell made for me. So the whole thing seems to be a great set up for working! The outside of my studio and just starting to move into the space with drawings I did in Boulder.

We had an artist presentation last night with a Dutch video artist who is here in residence and dinner after with our hosts and neighbor Luis and the other 6 or 7 artists who are here now. Good food, good wine, good company. Cydney and I both feel very comfortable from the start. Five weeks!

Here is the link to the Obras website, it is a beautiful place they have created:

http://www.obras-art.org/obras-portugal.html