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.