The aim was to challenge her studio practice by studying then traveling to locations where the artists lived to make work that conceptually spoke about her art and its relationship to those she was excavating. Arriving from her home in Boulder, Colorado, Wiggins was already committed to a long-term investigation that she termed Searching Selves, a conceptual process whereby she would delve into the artistic practices of other artists. ![]() The collaboration between Wiggins and photographer Luís Filipe Branco began in 2015 when Wiggins entered a residency at the rural OBRAS Foundation near Evoramonte in Portugal. Amid lush fields and ancient cork trees, an artisanal past comes forward in idyllic even aggressive presentations of womanhood in nature. Yet, it is in the broader subjects of landscape and nature that the narrative splits from that preconception. ![]() So, when we look at the Wiggins/Branco photographs what are we to look for? The subject, easily identified as the artist Wiggins, is a woman of a certain age. It is clear that making artistic work is far from the immediacy of a snapshot. We are overburdened with sorting not only pictures but their implied histories and meanings. Today, the general nature of self-representation has become complicated by the full-throttle world of image manufacturing and collection-Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, news cycles. Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco’s collaborative project The Mirror Between Us / O Espelho Entre N ó s presents us with questions about female agency in such reality creation. As Susan Sontag wrote in On Photography, the camera allows one to lay claim to another reality. A photograph multiplies the self into another dimension, a rotation in the vector of two objects to create a mirror image of the other. Mere scattered light and atoms make photographs. “The camera is the ideal arm of consciousness.” -Susan Sontag Cydney Payton wrote the essay for the exhibit, originally scheduled for 2020 and rescheduled for 2022 due to the covid pandemic. This exhibition was curated by Carolien van der Laan and Ludger van der Eerden, founders of the OBRAS Foundation in Evoramonte, Portugal. The Venus di Milo, portrait of the goddess of love and sensuality and symbol of antique beauty, is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated of these.The Mirror Between Us, an exhibition of performative photographs by Sherry Wiggins and Luis Filipe Branco, will be installed at the Igreja de Sao Vicente in Evora, Portugal, April 16- June 4, 2022. It originally stood in the temple dedicated to the Goddess in Cnidus, an ancient city in Asia Minor, and was subsequently used as a model for the numerous studies of the goddess created during the Hellenistic Period. The first nude portrayal of the Goddess Aphrodite would appear to be the Cnidian Aphrodite which was carved in marble by Praxilites in 360 BCE. The statue was made in two separate parts and the fluted drapery serves to hide the joint between the blocks of marble. The work feels smooth and compact to the touch and the intricate folds of the wrapped drapery at the hips can be clearly perceived. Her hair is tied up with a ribbon and is finely modelled in a naturalistic, descriptive manner, as can be seen in the lock which has come loose from the ribbon and is hanging down on her neck. Her aloof composure is that of a goddess and is underlined by her expressionless face – a typical characteristic of the Classical period. Her head is turned to her left, and its fine oval face is as typically Greek as her long straight nose. Her weight is supported by her straight right leg, while her left leg is set slightly forward with the knee bent and turned inwards, suggesting modesty. Her right shoulder is lower and further forward than the other, creating a shoulder line which parallels the diagonal of the gathered top of the drapery at her hips. Her posture is sinuous, the entire figure forming a sort of S. Her torso is naked but her lower body is swathed in a heavy, richly folded garment. Just over 2 metres tall, the goddess is portrayed in a standing position. The first, plaster, copy belongs to the Museo Omero while the second, in resin, is on loan for use from the Louvre, which houses the original. We have two copies on show, each taken from a true cast. This depiction of the goddess, which has become an icon of female beauty, would appear to be a copy of a lost sculpture by Lysippos. The celebrated Venus de Milo, found on the island of Milos in 1820, was carved circa 130 BCE. Translation by William Ellery Leonard, Perseus Digital Library). For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers,
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