20/04/23
Interview with Tiffanie Delune
There’s Gold on the Palms of my Hands
Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana
29 March – 3 May 2023
Tiffanie Delune (b1988, Paris) is a self-taught, mixed-media artist, whose richly vibrant canvases radiate movement and warmth. The reoccurrence of primordial forms, including circles, plant shapes, labyrinths and ladders, offers the viewer a springboard for entering the phantasmagorical world within the otherwise increasingly abstract compositions. It is apparent that these paintings want to tell stories, but it is up to the individual which lens to look through.
Delune explores and exploits her femininity in her work, describing some of her material choices as traditionally female. Certainly, additions such as glitter do seem to emphasise this, while also enhancing the magical and spiritual tone. Even in Delune’s early works, which drew heavily on her experience of trauma, she wanted the finished piece to look joyful. Her underlying messages, or lessons, were all the more powerful for this gentler, less shocking approach.
Place greatly influences Delune and her work, in terms of culture and identity, as someone of French, Belgo-Congolese heritage, now living in Lisbon, as well as in terms of where she is at the time of creating the piece. The 15 new works in this exhibition were all made on site during a three-month residency with the gallery, in Accra, Ghana, and Delune feels that her time there has helped her overcome her fear and avoidance of darker tones. Fittingly for an exhibition entitled There’s Gold on the Palms of my Hands, she also asked the gallery to paint their walls gold, which really offsets the palette of the paintings splendidly.
In this Zoom interview for Studio International, during the final throes of installation, Delune talks about the residency, her dream-life, her spirituality and how she keeps her energy flowing.
Read the full interview here