By Anjalie Dalal-Clayton
An object-centred, artist-directed reading
Image details
All in My Head’ (2021-2022) is a 50 x 60 cm painting depicting a gathering of people in an interior, domestic, space. A thin white border on the bottom and left edges of the painting suggests a window pain, while to the far left of the foreground there is a vertical panel painted in pale blues, greys and yellows – a net curtain drawn to the side. Together these elements indicate to the viewer that they are looking in on a scene from the outside. Windows have long served as framing devices for artists, directing the viewer’s gaze to a particular subject or scene and acting as an intermediary between an inner and outer world, both literal and metaphorical. Commonly, they feature as one amongst several elements within a depiction of an interior setting, allowing the viewer to see either the subject’s or the artist’s own view through a window, whilst also acting as metaphors for hope, change and the unknown. In Alexander’s painting, however, the viewer is themselves perceiving an interior scene through a window and being offered a glimpse into someone’s life, or indeed as the title suggests, into someone’s head. The curtain theatrically unveils this scene, inviting the viewer into a private setting. But with the curtain not fully drawn back, the invitation seems somewhat tentative.
In the foreground there is a circular dining table upon which is a pile of plates, a jug and a roast chicken - an element that is reminiscent of countless still life paintings and biblical images in the history of art, including Caravaggio’s ‘Supper at Emmaus’ (1602-3), which Alexander cites as a particular reference in her creation of this painting. The table is surrounded by several adults and children painted in rich blues, pinks and yellows, each engaged in their own activities and festive interactions. As such, it both draws on, and is reminiscent of, the various informal group portraits that have developed in art history, as seen in works by artists as varied as William Hogarth (1697-1764), Jan Steen (1626-1679) and Paula Rego (1935-2022).
While the viewer observes the scene through a window, there are a further two large sash windows within the scene itself and which dominate the top left quarter of the image. Here, these windows serve expectedly as symbols of hope, with three children gazing out towards their unknown futures. By contrast, a warm yellow light streams into the room through these windows, bathing the individuals in the foreground in the glow of a setting sun, hinting at life’s inevitable end, both at the individual level and on a wider, environmental scale. As such, the windows serve a dual purpose within the image, depicting the simultaneity of life’s ebbs and flows. This motif also features in the top right quarter of the image, despite its contrasting cool, grey tones. Painted with less definition, one can just make out the presence of five or perhaps six ethereal human figures representing moments lived and lives completed. Beyond these figures is an open doorway, leading further into the past, or conversely, welcoming the figures into the afterlife.
The figures in the foreground of the image are, by contrast, more vibrantly depicted, but they are not necessarily representative of the here and now. As in other sections of the painting, Alexander resists a conception of life and lifetimes as linear and finite; the figures in the foreground are just as representative of the ongoing spiritual and emotional presence of departed loved ones as they are of the present moment and its current protagonists. Among those represented in the foreground, are the painting’s two central figures. The first is a woman stood behind the table in a sleeveless dress, her hair tied back and both arms on her hips. In another context, her stance might represent power or leadership, but here it evokes a sense of exasperated resignation as she surveys the scene, taking in the warmth and chaos of the family gathering. The second central figure is a young girl in a pink dress, positioned to the left of this woman. Leaning forward and throwing her head back, her stance and expression is that of carefree abandonment and joy. The girl, and indeed others around her evoke the wonder, power, and vulnerability of girlhood in its entirety - a theme that features across many of Alexander’s paintings and thereby places her in the pantheon of artists who have explored and depicted girlhood, from Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and Edward Burne Jones (1833-1898) to Marlene McCarty (b.1957) and Sonia Boyce (b.1962)
Above all, this painting is a 360 degree meditation on the universal themes of love, family, humanity, mortality, and life in all its changing and chaotic splendour. Past, present and future are variously positioned and symbolised across the image, with each element of the painting pointing towards the contradictions and circularity of life, and particularly life lived as part of a family. Alexander began working on the painting in early 2021, developing its form and content over the course of a year as she experimented with light, colour and composition and explored the possibilities of her chosen medium of water-based oil paint. As with many of her paintings, she engages traditional painterly methods and draws on a variety of art-historical references in this painting, giving it a timeless quality. Less evident, though just as important an influence, is her passion for, and investment in, contemporary poetry and literature, and particularly that within the African-American and African-Caribbean diasporic canon. Alexander is a prolific reader – lines and passages from a multitude of texts (too many to list here) swirl around her head as she works on her paintings. Though there are no immediately obvious literary references in ‘All in My Head’, the artist’s engagement in the concept of humanity as explored through the recent writing of Kevin Quashie (Black Aliveness, or a Poetics of Being, 2021) provides a conceptual framework through which she now reflects on this painting and the way it depicts the fact of Black humanity. In his book, Quashie cites Lucille Clifton’s (1936-2010) 1991 free verse poem, Reply – a powerful proclamation of Black humanity that, for Alexander, offers a poetic illustration of the very human questions and emotional struggles she seeks to resolve in this painting:
Image sourced from https://sites.hampshire.edu/blackaesthetics/files/2016/12/quashie-clifton_reply.pdf (accessed 62/11/2023)