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Bria Sterling-Wilson Safekeeps Her Grandmother’s Story

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Memorial Tribute to Dereck Stafford Mangus (1978-2024)

Bria Sterling-Wilson is the proud granddaughter of Joan Poncella Sterling.

When Sterling-Wilson’s father stepped out of her life at a young age, it was her grandmother who stepped in. “My grandma was there to be that support system and that parental guidance for me when my mother had to take on the responsibility of two people. I can never thank them enough for all that they have given to me,” she says. 

In Joan Poncella, exhibiting at Waller Gallery through July 27th, the photographer and collage artist honors her grandmother with a new eponymous body of work. Sterling-Wilson uses magazine clippings, photos from family albums, and family artifacts from the late 1970s and 80s to peel back the layers of Joan’s life. And her grandmother, now 85, gets to witness the unfolding of her own story just the way she has articulated it. It’s the story of what being a Sterling woman means to Sterling-Wilson; the definition is rooted in poise and resilience. 

The documentary-style approach took two years and included recording conversations with her grandma, going through family photo albums, and looking at photographs her grandfather took of her in her negligee and her boudoir. Sterling-Wilson went through all of the papers her grandmother saved from her childhood including love letters, notes that she wrote to people, and lottery tickets. There are even documents from her 13-year trial with the Maryland Transit after she was hit by a drunk driver at the age of five, a tragedy that marked but didn’t write the rest of her story. 

After collecting information, Sterling-Wilson realized her grandmother’s story needed to be told. The exhibition is just as much about tender moments as it is about tough ones. The seventeen-piece survey of her life touches on disability, relationships, home, religion, sexuality, and resilience. 

 

My grandma kept a lot of her prosthetic legs, so I took those and applied glass pieces with resin on the prosthetics. I wanted to figure out a way to show this beauty within such a traumatic experience. 
Bria Sterling-Wilson

I recently spoke with the artist about her relationship with her grandmother, her archival process, and turning the unfolding of her grandmother’s life into an exhibition. 

You’ve done such a great job encapsulating the rich tapestry of your grandmother’s life, one marked by resilience after tragedy at an early age. What was your approach to unearthing her traumatic accident? 

My grandma was tragically hit by a drunk driver at the age of five, and her left leg was amputated from the knee down. The accident led her to a 13-year lawsuit with the Mass Transit Administration. 

My grandmother was born in Virginia, but she and my great-grandmother moved to Baltimore right after the accident. However, it didn’t stop my grandmother from trying to lead as much of a normal childhood as possible. She taught herself how to swim, how to ice skate, and how to run. She did everything that a normal child would do. She just had a prosthetic leg in the process of all of that. 

The lawsuit was for employment discrimination connected to her grandmother’s disability, a case she won in 1988. She ended up getting the job at the end of it all and I believe she received some money as well. I chose to line the walls of the show with the pages of the trial and accompany the pages with photographs of my grandma. 

Your grandma’s prosthetics show up in the show in the form of a chandelier. Can you tell me about that decision? 

My grandma kept a lot of her prosthetic legs, so I took those and applied glass pieces with resin on the prosthetics. I wanted to figure out a way to show this beauty within such a traumatic experience but to also shed this light on who my grandmother is through the prosthetics.

I took the base of a chandelier, found some crystals, put some light bulbs in there, and made my chandelier with the prosthetic legs. I’ve put chandeliers in my previous works because I like the idea that chandeliers show this elegance, this royalty, and this beauty in these spaces. That’s how I view my grandmother. I’ve put her on a pedestal. When you go into a room that has a chandelier you look at it, and it just has this aura that brightens up the room and that’s what I wanted to have for her. 

I wanted to make sure that my grandmother saw how I see her and what she has instilled in me.
Bria Sterling-Wilson

How have you chosen to reinterpret other pieces of your grandma’s story throughout the show? 

One of the pieces in the show is called “Stocking Stuffers,” because my grandma had photographs that my grandpa took of her stuffed in her stockings, so that’s why I’ve chosen to present some of the photographs in stockings like that. 

She would also collect quarters of the different states, so I put those in the bottom just to give it a little bit of depth and dimension. My grandmother told me that my grandfather was her greatest love, so I wanted to incorporate that into the exhibition. 

My grandmother is also a very spiritual person. She has shown me how to incorporate spirituality and God into my practice. All of what I do is through God. None of this would be possible without the Lord and I wanted to ensure this was shown in this exhibition. I did a piece called “The Altar” and it’s a smaller version of what my grandmother’s dresser looks like. There’s the Bible there, it has my great-grandmother’s photograph, some rosaries, and spiritual candles. 

She always tells me to read Psalms 23, so I had the Bible verses printed on some clothes and I have them leaning over some parts of the exhibition as well, so I wanted to make that present there. 

The sexuality piece goes along with the photographs that my grandfather took of her. She has always been very open about love, sex, and being open. She always tells me, “You are young, make sure you live your life and have fun and enjoy yourself.” She has never been guarded in that regard. She would tell me that she would have three different men at a time. One for her money, one for her honey, and one to just talk to and get groceries. She’s very open.

There’s a letter from one of her old boyfriends, John Green. He wrote her this beautiful letter about her cooking, fried chicken, and how it relates to her personality. My grandmother touched so many people and still does. You just have to meet her to feel that passion, love, and energy that she brings into a room. 

It’s so beautiful that you are doing this while you’re still with your grandma, and she’s able to see the way that you see her. 

That was extremely important to me. When we started talking and going through things, I was like I’ve got to do this now. I hate to put a time on someone’s life, but we don’t know when our loved ones are going. I wanted to make sure that my grandmother saw how I see her and what she has instilled in me. This was important for me to get out and share. 

My grandma was able to attend my recent artist talk. She absolutely loved it and was so surprised to see how everything came together. I don’t think she knew how much work I actually did to put the exhibition together. 

She was truly amazed at the detail and how I used her photographs and personal materials to create this show about her. She told everyone this is just the beginning and there is more to come, so I have more work to do.

Joan Poncella is on view until July 27th at the Waller Gallery: 1pm-5pm Saturday, by appointment.

Photos courtesy of Waller Gallery

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