Cherelle Sappleton

Cherelle Sappleton is a London-based artist whose practice explores, through both a surreal and critical lens, feminine representation. As an artist of Afro-Caribbean descent, she interrogates, within the framework of the female body, the portrayal of ‘blackness’. Sappleton’s exploration of gender and race, with particular urgency to the death of George Floyd, emphasises these identities within the roles of agency versus structure (systems) - consistently addressing the complexities of identity.

Photographic media is at the core of Cherelle’s practice using traditional hand-cut and digital methods of collage to cover, collide, and converge imagery. The photographic material often nods to the body in either representation or silhouette. Coming from divergent sources, she builds beautiful juxtapositions. In Define yourself she collides various models from fashion magazines, while for Semblance she converges images from her project Scan/Exchange (a digital archive of family photographs donated by people of colour). Sappleton’s use of manipulating pre-existing sources of photographic material adds a layer of consideration through the concept of appropriation.

In Among Other Things, a recent exhibition of Cherelle’s work, however, she refrains from overtly depicting the body. Instead, investigating ways that allude to figuration. By pushing these collages further into abstraction, the body is more insinuated than applied. Subtle, but also powerful and complex, this work reminds us that identity, including gender, race, ability, and sexuality, may not always be overt, but is omnipresent in everything we do.

BLOK’s interview with Cherelle Sappleton

Tell us a bit about yourself - who you are, your background, where and what you create.

CS: My name is Cherelle Sappleton, I’m a visual artist living and working in London. I’m fascinated by photography’s power and the unique status it holds as a discipline that (truthfully?) captures our experiences, the world we live in and particularly, people. Ultimately the whole of my practice is an ongoing exploration of how images are constructed; how identity and the body is portrayed via photography.

Identity is at the heart of your work - from Define yourself to Among Other Things, how are some of the ways you’ve explored the many layers of identity through your practice?

CS: I’m often caught between a push and pull of frustration and fascination with photographic images, particularly fashion editorials. I love to be seduced by their beauty, glamour and completeness, but they always fall short for me especially when reflecting identity which is always represented as resolved. However, because identity is not fixed, collage-based approaches are a perfect way for me to upset that completeness and create spaces of conflict, complexity, depth and non-fixity. Surface and texture have become increasingly important over the years as I want to create objects that have a sculptural and tactile aspect to them, adding to their depth.

Can you talk us through your work Among Other Things?

CS: Among Other Things is a solo art exhibition that opened earlier this year at Exeter Phoenix that was unfortunately cut short by COVID-19 and has sat dark since the lockdown. The main idea behind the show was to coherently bring works from different series together featuring a combination of new and older works spanning 6 years or so and hopefully provides a window into the things that I’m interested in and the multiple ways I approach image-making. One of the key aspects of the show is the installation of striped leatherette which is a recurring material in larger artworks I’ve made which was installed like wallpaper throughout the three different galleries. Whilst being visually striking and tying the spaces together, the best thing about this material is it’s dizzying, disorienting effect. I like to install my work in interesting ways that are sympathetic and playful with the architecture. It’s important to me to make a home for the work in the spaces and places its shown and that the viewer encounters the work in a variety of ways. One device I use is installing artwork at unusual heights so people are required to alter their stances, strain or bend to see the work. This performance/participation aspect in reading the work is really interesting to me, feeding into establishing a bodily response in the viewer.

Who or what has had the biggest influence on your work?

CS: I studied fine art with drama and experimental theatre up to an undergraduate level so performance and using the body as the material is something I continue to do, but through visual art rather than on stage. Dramatists such as Meyerhold and Grotowski have been hugely influential to me, their approaches establish the body as a site of transformation both internally and externally which feeds into my interest in representation, identity and non-fixity.

Your work can feel both intensely personal but also universal in its exploration of identity. Are you able to tell us about how personal experiences have shaped a particular piece or collection of work?

CS: The iconic statement the ‘personal is political’ is perhaps a good lens to view my work through. My relationship to photography is, as I said previously, a contrary one. As a teenager I would pour over magazines like I-D and The Face, worshipping the slick editorials and super cool creatives depicted on their pages wishing that’d be me one day. Suffice it to say there were very few people of colour featured in the magazines and if they were any, it was in a very specific and limited context much like the curriculum I was taught at school. The omission of black and brown people in these magazines jarred with the reality of living in Luton, a very multicultural town and having mates from Bangladeshi, India, Jamaican, and white English backgrounds along with my own mixed family. My day to day reality always involved a mix of music and tv tastes from Radiohead, Luther Vandross, Kate Bush, UB40 to Desmonds, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Coronation Street and Star Trek. You could say my work started as a process of inscribing my own presence and identity onto the pages of these magazines which then blossomed into a wider practice of undoing, deconstructing and reconstituting images.

Responding to the murder of George Floyd and what it represents more widely in the relation to the abuse of the rights and lives of black people, you’ve spoken about your practice being able to help repair some of the hurt you feel. How is art and the process of creating serving you at this time?

CS: I actually haven’t made much work that’s project-related during this time- I’ve mainly been resting and reading and pursuing other interests. The day I posted about George Floyd’s murder on Instagram was the first time in a while that I thought of a complete artwork which could potentially articulate what hypervisibility as a black person feels like. It would be an immersive installation without images just a sound recording and wall coverings. I wouldn’t say my practice is serving me at this time but instead, perhaps it’s arming me with a way to create an experience for people to really feel rather than talk about or look at.

As a self-described melophile (music lover), what role does music play in your art, whether in the creative process or within your work itself?

CS: Well, firstly I have to have music on when I make work. If I’m starting a new project I kind of set the scene with new music before I can start so I can access the right vibe which can take a bit of time in some cases so it’s definitely the music first then comes the art. It’s a funny thing to actually try and pinpoint the ways in which music manifests in my work but all I can say is its a vibe. If I’m stuck I’ll seek out music that is loose and playful, if I want to access something a bit agro, I’ll select a track on that basis. I see music as a palette of emotions that can be accessed at will and as such I like to keep an open mind and listen to all kinds of stuff. I could only tell you what I’m listening to now rather than what kind of stuff I listen to as it’s wide-ranging and changes quite a bit. I’ve actually recently started a Sound Therapy course out of a desire to not only bring more music into my life but to also do something beneficial with sound which I’ve always known that there’s a vital spiritual, therapeutic, transcendental aspect to music, but the West has become disconnected from.

Your use of materials and techniques has been described as disrupting the ‘usual’ reading of surface and space within the gallery and sometimes having a visceral effect on the viewer. How do you want people to feel when they interact with your art?

CS: Ideally, I want people to become aware of their bodies whilst looking at the work and the fact that the act of looking is a bodily experience not passive, but involving all of the senses.

In your opinion and with your experience, what is the role of art in instigating, fostering or catalysing change?

CS: I believe that accessing and appreciating art should be a part of everyday life, free from hierarchy but unfortunately, the language and industry surrounding contemporary art especially is one of exclusivity. I think art’s impact can be incredible and revolutionary not least as an activity that people engage in for their wellbeing and enjoyment. For me, the most effective way to make an impact is on the street as interventions in daily life, using billboards and coopting other types of advertising or spaces, to inserting visual art into places and spaces where people from all walks of life can encounter it and be provoked to think or be moved.

Cherelle Sappleton in her studiophotograph: Oliver Holms — Cherelle Sappleton in her studio
photograph: Oliver Holms

ISSUE #02 : identity