The Unexpected in Conversational paintings – The Tiger Chronicles by Tanya Chaitow
In the latest series of paintings by Tanya Chaitow, titled “The Tiger Chronicles”, she brings together her interest in 18th century Conversational paintings and her love of animals. In these paintings it is the Tiger. Chaitow’s paintings are small. They invite the viewer to take a step up to their painted surfaces and examine the modulation of painted brush strokes and the imagery within. It is easy to assume at first glance that the imagery within will deliver a straightforward narrative, but on closer inspection the motifs dispel this assumption delivering a somewhat disrupted image.
The issue of disruption has been central in Chaitow’s paintings and practice for several years. In this current body of works the visual process of disruption takes place through three key elements. The first is through the artist’s ability to fuse two disparate subjects – the Tiger and the portrayal of women from art history. This fusion between the feline and the feminine, between the head of the tiger, her tail and the body of a well dressed woman. This allows the artist to essentially move between two genres in painting, one that is both historical and theatrical; and the other that is fantasy. The second element of disruption takes place through the introduction of contemporaneous detritus such as goggles, handbags, and Nike runners that are delightfully tucked in-between the clothing of well-dressed 18th century women. The third is through her use of colour that tips towards otherworldly hues of fuchsia, pink and purple.
The amalgamation of these elements has allowed Chaitow to play with how the artist and the viewer might approach art history and its facility to deliver or in this case disrupt the visual condition of story telling through painting; whether it be fact or fiction, historiy or theatre.
In these paintings the Tiger and the female figures become synonymous with one another and take on the references of the Tiger as protector, symbolising strength, power, ferocity, courage and valour. Set against the sometimes acrid, eerie landscapes, the motif of the She-Tigress jolts the viewer not only to question the assumed narrative but to find the unexpected delight of everyday paraphernalia within the image. These elements allow the viewer to connect with the images at hand, and indulge in the unexpected terrain of her paintings that seem to bring into question what the genre of conversational painting in art might be today as they visually point towards deeper issues such as consumerism, consumption and waste.
Dr Elefteria Vlavianos
