Sitting with Tsering, Alanah Ellen Brand, 2025, oil on canvas, 100x100cm.

Brand’s portrait subject is the acclaimed Australian artist Tsering Hannaford. Brand incorporates two of Hannaford's self-portraits into her composition; her Self-Portrait (2018) and Objet démodé (2015), in which Hannaford portrays herself as a sculptural bust. This work comments on the objectification of women and the entrenched beauty standards prevalent in contemporary culture. Both self-portraits are deeply influenced by contemporary feminism, a theme that resonates in the works of both Hannaford and Brand, alongside their shared passion for oil painting and portraiture.

Hannaford creates self-portraits during times of personal reflection and works directly from life. Brand chose to incorporate these self-portraits into her own depiction of Hannaford to communicate the multiple layers of the artist’s identity, her creative process, and the profound meanings embedded across her works.

In Brand’s painting, Hannaford’s self-portrait Objet démodé is transformed into a sculpture placed on a plinth beside the artist, who holds a viewfinder—an instrument she uses when painting from life. In Brand's composition, all three faces of Hannaford, each viewed from a different angle, engage the viewer, prompting them to consider who is truly being observed. The evolving role of the artist, who observes both the subject and the environment, is brought into question.