2022 Sitka Residency Artist Highlight: Sam Wrigglesworth
I use photography to engage relationships between memory, the natural environment, and expansive representations surrounding feminist and queer histories. I am frequently a subject, while interweaving narratives beyond my own. I consider the landscape as a site of both violence and sanctuary for queer people and marginalized genders. This tension is evidenced through a range of influences including autobiography, rural queer kinship, herbal allies for reproductive sovereignty, and frequently working within lesbian separatist communities in Southern Oregon.
As a queer female photographer in Oregon, I situate my practice within a long lineage of lesbian photography within the region. The Ovular photography workshops, which took place within women’s separatist communities in Oregon in the 1980s, inform my ethos surrounding feminist anti-hierarchical relationships between photographer and subject. In these communities, patriarchal language surrounding photography was shifted; “seminar” became “ovular’’ and “shooting” became “making.” I often sit with reflections offered by artists who facilitated these workshops, such as Tee Corinne: “What are the differences between the ways men have pictured women and the ways we see ourselves?”
During my time at Sitka, I focused on scanning negatives and editing photographs that I had made while living on lesbian separatist communities in spring of 2022 as well as inviting friends to sit for portraits in the secluded landscape that was provided by the residency. Intergenerational dialog surrounding feminism, lesbian/queer identities, aging and disability, and land-based living are topics that I plan to continue engaging in the years to come— particularly within the context of survival throughout climate degradation and increased threats to womb sovereignty and the livelihoods of queer people.
Sam Wrigglesworth is an emerging artist living in Oregon. Since earning their BFA in Photography from the University of Oregon in 2019, they have exhibited in galleries including Blue Sky/Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Carnation Contemporary, Tropical Contemporary, SOIL, Photographic Center Northwest, Astoria Visual Arts, among others. Their work has been supported by the Tee A. Corinne Memorial Travel Fellowship, a University Fellowship through The Ohio State University, and a Make|Learn|Build Grant through the Regional Arts and Culture Council. This upcoming fall, they will be an incoming MFA candidate in Studio Art at The Ohio State University.