Sondra Sherman

Sherman's series The Box Pieces reflects on archetypes and the dynamic which exist within relationships. This series primarily consists of jewelry objects which often reference archetypal literary and mythical characters including Miss Havisham, Venus, and Cupid. Sherman complicates these figures by incorporating themes such as sensuality, sexuality, and decay into their representations.[5]

Each piece in this series is contained by a box made to serve as its complement, the feature for which the series is named. of these boxes, American Author Ralph Turner writes, "a narrative documenting the finding of the components of her jewelry is hinted at, or reproduced, on its container. This narrative permeates her graceful, 'classical' interpretations, which transform fragments from old chandeliers, photographs and crushed glass, reinventing them into votive and ambiguous ornament."[6]

This series, first exhibited at Gallery Sienna Patti in 2007, reflects on the increasing medicalization of American society by presenting plants typically used in pharmaceuticals in steel brooches that make visual reference to corsages.[7] Describing her own work, Sherman writes, "I hate pharmaceutical commercials. They make me nervous and then sell me something to ease my nerves. I like the idea of a medicinal corsage, and, jewelry that soothes."[8]

Upside Down in Paradise explores the cultural and geographic landscape of Southern California. Within this series, Sherman photographs the landscape as seen from inside of trains and cars, largely focusing on ordinary or mundane buildings, and then presents the images captured in jewelry objects.[9] of this series, Sherman writes, "While ‘Upside Down in Paradise’ has a particular geographical reference, its subject is inherently universal- in the diversity of ethnicities and social histories which make up the culture of California, but also in the common experiences of (re)locating oneself in an unfamiliar place, or the perceptions developed while traveling through... The vestigial glamour of the California idyll of the 1950’s and 60’s, palpable in the faded commercial signs, and architectural facades which punctuate the roadside with their gemstone-like shapes, and generous proportions, against the expansive blue sky inspire oversize jewelry with sun weathered surfaces."[9]