[Summer 2026]
Sirens, Heroines, and Unique Women
by Ioana Dragomir and Cheryl Simon
[EXCERPT]
This collaborative essay inspired by Angela Grauerholz’s book The Hundred Headless Woman was written in two parts, from two perspectives. It is Ioana Dragomir’s first encounter with Grauerholz’s work, whereas Cheryl Simon has known Grauerholz for decades, having written about her practice and appeared in her photographs. Dragomir’s reflections are shaped by observation and association, by putting things beside each other, much like Grauerholz does in her book. Simon’s voice operates in parallel to introduce context, hesitation, and shifts in scale. The two modes of engagement with Grauerholz’s work remain adjacent. Meaning is collaged and produced through proximity rather than distilled into a single conclusion.
Virginia Woolf’s photo albums, all of them, are digitized and publicly accessible through Harvard University’s library. Many of the photographs are of women – her sister Vanessa and her lover Vita among them – and Woolf herself appears in several, although there are no self-portraits. The images that resonate most strongly are those in which the people photographed are not quite visible. They are overexposed, features washed out into a haze of white or swallowed by shadow. These mysterious figures embody the nature of the photograph itself, with its insistence on capturing the singular moment only. There is no way to squint or move our heads to bring the subjects of these pictures into focus.
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[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 132 – TABLEAUX ]
[ Complete article in digital version available here: TITRE ARTICLE]
Ioana Dragomir is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Montreal. In particular, poetic methodologies of juxtaposition, metaphor, and slippage are important in her work.
Cheryl Simon is a writer and academic, teaching at Concordia University on subjects related to collage, assemblage and installation arts, and forensic and investigative aesthetics.