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Anita, 2015
Fueled by the zeitgeist of the 19th century, specifically the ideologies of the Industrial Revolution, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, Darwinism, and the invention of photography, artist Leslie Sheryll focuses on the female's identity in a male-centric society.
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Starting with vintage tintypes, Sheryll layers the images with history, botany, fantasy, and personal experience to construct a narrative for the women featured in the photograph. As a final touch, the artist names the women, which becomes the title of the piece, retroactively bestowing identity and agency upon women who otherwise would have had none.
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In older works, like those of the Techno Void and Voids series, the faces of Sheryll’s women are either partially or fully blocked out, “inspired by a need to represent the restrictive parameters put upon women who are forced to fit into prescribed societal beliefs.” Her ability to materialize something that existed, and to a lesser yet palpably persistent degree still exists today, as only ideology serves as the validation and acknowledgment of a reality that so many women understand.
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HERbarium - HER Choice
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The artist’s advocacy evolves throughout her body of works, taking on a more specific cause in the more recent series HERbarium - HER Choice, in which the woman's subversive adaptation to patriarchal control over her person and body is highlighted by including visuals of particular herbs and flowers used by women to control their own reproductive system.
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Whether through an exploration of a woman’s role in marriage, a young girl’s options, or lack thereof, for their future, or the perceived threat healers placed on society, Leslie Sheryll’s work is undeniably feminist.
To view more of her work, click here.
