"Uphold (from below)", Video-performance, 2019

 This video-performance was created at the site of a large, half-alive cottonwood tree in a woodland near the Mississippi River in the American Midwest. The tree had been struck by lightning several years prior to making this work and weathered the storm. In June 2017, when this was shot, I had recently completed my last round of chemotherapy after a diagnosis of breast cancer earlier that year. The video is comprised of footage shot just days before my body was forever altered by surgery.  It was the last opportunity to create a site-based piece with body in the landscape as I had known and worked with throughout my life as an artist and a woman.  Multiple superimpositions of the figure appear, including a momentary image of the post-surgical body shot later, representing different states of process and being.

Performed & Directed by Cherie Sampson

Music Composition & Production: Charles Gran

Instrumental performances by: Elaine AuBuchon, oboe & Brian Kubin, cello

"Uphold (from below)" is in the permanent collection of the Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland.

 

SCREENINGS & EXHIBITIONS:

  • A 3-minute excerpt from this vide-performance is presented in Act I of the “every.single.one” theatrical live performance as part of its projection design. 2023-25.
  • Art, Cancer & Transformation, Solo art exhibition, FMAAA / Fort Madison Area Arts Association gallery, Fort Madison, Iowa. Presented as a video projection on the gallery wall. 2025.
  • Viral Integration, Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences Building, UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health Building, University of California, Irvine. Curated by elino'Hara slavick.  A still image from this piece was exhibited for this show, now part of the permanent collection at the Public Health Building. 2024.
  • Personal History, Art St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. Group/Juried art exhibition. 2023.
  • single.one: art, cancer & transformation, Solo art exhibition at Joan Hisaoka Gallery, Smith Center for Healing & the Arts, Washington, D.C. 2023. Exhibited as wall video projection. 2023.
  • The Quality of Being Fleeting, Two-person art exhibition (with Gillian Brown). Invited. Gallery 826, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The exhibition was also part of the annual CURRENTS New Media Festival.  Video projection on the gallery wall. 2022.
  • Voices & Visions: Standing on the Bridge Between Health & Disease, Highland Park Art Center, Highland Park, IL. Group art exhibition, curated by Caren Rudman. 2022.
  • FilmFest by Rogue Dancer, “Fleshie Edition” Screendance festival. 2022.
  • Our Planet: Ourselves, ARC Gallery, Chicago, Il. Group/Juried art exhibition. 2021.
  • FIVA International Festival of Video Art Camagüey, Cuba. Venues: Circuit for the Exhibition & Development of New Media (CEDINM) & city of Camagüey, Cuba. 2021.
  • Awareness Film Festival, Los Angeles, California. Hybrid online and in person at the Regal at La Live. Award: Honorable Mention.
  • Art from the Heartland 2020, Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana. Group/Juried art exhibition. Award: Best of 2D category. (Video qualified as “2D”) 2020.
  • Eco-Consciousness, Organized by ecoartspace. Online. Group/juried online art exhibition. Printed catalog. Eleanor Heartney, Juror.
  • In Shadow Screendance Festival, Part of video-installation series at NOTE Galeria de Arquitetura (Gallery), Lisbon, Portugal. 2020.
  • Bogota Experimental Film Festival, Screened in the program called, “Skin That Becomes Irrepressible,” Online. Bogota, Columbia. 2020.
  • 17th Signos da Noite Internacional Film Festival, International Short Films Competition, Desterro, Lisboa, Portugal. 2020.
  • Midwest Women Making Art Because the World Matters, Heuser Gallery, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois. Invited. Organized as part of the symposium: “Midwest Women Artists, Champions of the Environment.”
  • Evolving the Forest, Creative Summit, Dartington Hall, Devon, Film programme screening of video-performance. An essay about the piece was also included in a text version of symposium proceedings in a published book of the same name. 2019.
  • North Star Music Festival, Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri. Screened & presented “Uphold (from below)” with composer for the film, Charles Gran. 2019.
  • Outlet Dance Project, 15th Annual Festival at Grounds for Sculpture, Screendance festival. Hamilton, New Jersey. 2019.
  • Movimiento en Movimiento, Festival Internacional de Danza Para la Pantalla. Screendance festival. Center of Digital Culture, Mexico City, Mexico. Award: Second place in International Category.
  • Jeju International Experimental Art Festival, Republic of Tamnala, Jeju-do, South Korea. Screened along with several other video art works looping in an installation. 2019.
  • PSi Daegu 2018/Performance as Network: Arts, City, Culture. Performance Studies International conference. Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, South Korea. Screened 3 works in the conference. 2018.