Tanica Powell

Using the traditional technique of etching, I examine ideologies of value systems and its contradictions from a socio-political context. I use materials with certain societal connotations that inform my inquiries into ideas of the class and hierarchies; questioning modes of reproduction and appropriation through historical reference to garment and drapery colliding with the contemporary environment.

My most recent work On the contrary (05/2018) references the painting Portrait of a lady, called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield (1615) by an unknown artist; the idea behind the painting being so unsure allows me to appropriate and reinperate the images, questioning ideas of ownership within reproductions. The contradictions of material within these works informs this reconstruction of the painting. Taking aspects like the size of the painting in which my steel structure replicates and the colours of the fabric she is clothed in allows me to reinforce notions of abundance, luxury vs. labour and what is utilitarian.