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A 'world weary Cleopatra' lives in Boulder

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by
Lindsey Ford
• Published on • Last modified on
Artist Sherry Wiggins holds a copy of her book, "The Unknown Heroine." Wiggins uses performative art to protray women in history, like Cleopatra and Helen of Troy.
Photo: Lindsey Ford, Rocky Mountain PBS
Rocky Mountain PBS

BOULDER, Colo. — How the world perceives women in history, including mythological women and how the body ages, fascinates local artist Sherry Wiggins.

“I think there is a double thing about older women being misrepresented in a certain way, and all women being misrepresented,” said Wiggins, an interdisciplinary artist who combines digital work, installations, public and performative art, and sculpture.

“I think there is a sort of double feminist thing to my work.”

Her most recent performative artwork, called "My Cleopatra (with a snake and a cigarette)," shows at Boulder’s East Window Gallery through February and is Wiggins take on a “world-weary Cleopatra.” The collaboration with Portuguese photographer Luís Felipe Brancofeatures Wiggins wearing a gold gown, colorfully beaded necklace, jet-black wig, and colorful eye makeup.  

Colorado Voices

A “world weary Cleopatra” lives in Boulder, Colorado

The photographs were taken in Europe at a small café.

“I mean, [Luís Filipe Branco] shoots beautiful photographs. Some of them just have power,” she said. Wiggins and Branco have been creating art together for more than 10 years.

“After doing these photoshoots, I often wait a couple of months to actually do the editing because the images kind of almost need to breathe, and I need to have a perspective on them,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins, who has a background in sculpting, sized up the photographs so that viewers could relate to them on a particular scale. The photographs are first printed as small proofs.

Dressing up like Eve, Salome, Helen of Troy and Sappho for her work was fun, Wiggins said, but the series was also an opportunity for her to learn about history from her “older feminist self.” She explored how these women may have been mispresented or mistreated in a misogynistic way.

Although Wiggins appears glamorous and dressed up in the photos, she made it a point not to hide her 68 years.

“I think that’s the point is that we can be proud, we can be seen as older women, older men, [and] not [let] people make you feel invisible,” she said.

The exhibit “Aging Bodies, Myths and Heroines,” featuring Wiggins and Branco’s work, is free and open to the public until Feb. 28, 2024 at East Window Gallery in Boulder. 

Lindsey Ford is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. Lindseyford@rmpbs.org.

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