Tribal Grandmother: How Colour and Monochrome Transform the Same Portrait

Art Selfie Project Neo Sign

Tribal Grandmother: Between Electric Reverie and Monochrome Memory

She stands at the edge of two worlds — one drenched in colour like a fevered dream, the other stripped bare to shadow and breath. The wind moves through her feathers. The shore hums beneath her feet. She is myth, she is memory, she is the witness and the storyteller.

The Tribal Grandmother portraits exist in two worlds — one bathed in hallucinatory colour, the other carved from shadow and light. Both hold the same figure, the same costuming, the same gaze — and yet they tell entirely different stories.

In the colour with blue wash edition, the coastal flora background — photographed on a recent nature shoot — bursts into a surreal palette of electric blues, magentas, and violets. It’s an almost impossible colourscape, part coral reef, part alien dream. Against it, the Victorian-inspired costume of layered feather petals and voluminous tulle becomes a luminous apparition. The tattoos along the figure’s legs feel like living hieroglyphs, each mark glowing with amplified energy. This version is spectacle: an immersion into saturated wonder, where every element hums with intensity.

The monochrome edition strips away the vibrancy, allowing the image to breathe in a quieter register. Here, the details sharpen — the grain of the feathers, the shadows caught in the folds of tulle, the interplay of skin and ink. Without colour’s distraction, the scene becomes ceremonial, even confrontational. It feels older, heavier, as though it belongs to an archive of portraits from a parallel past. The mood shifts from dreamlike to deliberate; from a celebration of visual abundance to a study in poise and presence.

Together, these works reveal the power of palette in shaping narrative. The colour version seduces; the monochrome holds you still. Both contain the same woman — an archetype standing between myth and memory — yet each delivers her in a different emotional language.


Photograph, Tribal Grandmother Sarnia Photography

Tribal Grandmother Art by Sarnia

Press

Press Release

For Immediate Release
Artist Sarnia de la Maré unveils a feminist triptych-in-progress: self-portraiture, satire, and the fragile stage of modern womanhood

Sarnia de la Maré FRSA has released City Chicks, the third work in her ongoing selfie-art series, joining The Bridesmaid and Tribal Grandmother to form what is emerging as a powerful triptych-in-progress. This body of work places the artist herself at the centre of a conversation about women, performance, and fractured identity in the digital age.

  • The Bridesmaid (2025) uses Victorian layering techniques and double exposure to create a ghostly, painterly portrait. The work highlights historical erasures of women’s agency while reasserting presence through layered time.

  • Tribal Grandmother (2025) — in both monochrome and a blue-wash colour version — invokes the matriarchal figure as symbol of wisdom, strength, and continuity. The piece speaks to generational memory and the silencing of elder voices in contemporary culture.

  • City Chicks (2025) moves into satirical territory. Here, three golden, mirrored figures tread on fragile eggshells while oversized chicks look on. Bleeding toes expose the cost of “walking on eggshells” for public image, while the absurd chick imagery critiques the infantilisation of women and the absurdity of performance.

Together, these three works form the opening act of a broader project that reclaims the selfie as intellectual and artistic rebellion. The repetition of the artist’s own body—mirrored, fractured, reimagined—collapses the divide between artist, subject, and critic, making the work both personal and universal.

The triptych establishes the tone for the larger series-in-progress: an evolving dialogue between history, myth, and satire, with women’s visibility and vulnerability at its core. Collectors now have the opportunity to acquire these works at their inception, as the series expands into a fuller exploration of identity, endurance, and feminist commentary.

City Chicks is now available exclusively through de la Maré’s Saatchi Art store.

About the Artist

Sarnia de la Maré FRSA (also known as iServalan) is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and writer whose work spans visual art, music, and experimental cinema. Her practice often integrates feminist critique, neurodiverse awareness, and environmental commentary.

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sarniadelamare@gmail.com