The site of a majestic old cottonwood tree for the “Uphold (from below)” video-performance was also the setting for a series of photographic performances for the still camera that were shot between Sampson’s final round of chemotherapy and surgery. The tree was struck by lightning many years prior to the shoot, lost its upper canopy yet was green with foliage and still hanging on and alive.

* Production in collaboration with photographer, Lisa Wigoda; post-production, Cherie Sampson.

Digital Photographs, printed on archival paper.

The home gardens, prairies, orchard, woodlands where the artist, Cherie Sampson, lives set the mise-en-scène for a series of self-administered honeybee “stinging rituals” over a period of several months in 2021. A team of Australian researchers recently discovered that the active substance in honeybee venom, melittin, has demonstrated a capacity to induce cell death in two types of aggressive breast cancers: Triple-negative and HER2. As a survivor of TNBC, Sampson engaged this symbolic act, calling attention to the need for more natural or other forms of cancer therapy that may one day offer alternatives to toxic treatments. Footage of the foraging patterns of honeybees and other native pollinators of the Midwest that illustrate the diverse life in healthy ecosystems are juxtaposed with images of the stinging rites. (Sampson notes that the stinging ‘rites’ occurred after she was in remission, not during active treatment as prescribed by her cancer care team.) 

This project also includes an installation comprised of apple wood and silk. Dimensions vary.

A series of photographic performances for the still camera took place at the site of an apple orchard during the spring bloom during Sampson’s cancer treatment, representing the orchard and the artist in a process of transformation. Sampson’s husband, the proprietor and orchardist, had dug holes in the ground just after a controlled burn of the orchard floor for the planting of young trees. The environment and performative gestures were a metaphor for the abyss of illness and at the same time, anticipation of new (renewed) life. Production in collaboration with photographer, Lisa Wigoda; post-production, Cherie Sampson.