Covers
France
2022
During her childhood, Elisabeth Gomes Barradas’s imagination was shaped watching videos of Aaliyah, Beyoncé, Ashanti and Alicia Keys on repeat. She is fascinated by the Black culture and the “glitter” of the 2000s. As an R’n’B fan, this musical style is part of her life and artistic practice. The series Covers pays tribute to R’n’B and its artists through portraits that evoke, with many devices and props, the conventions of these popular “bling-bling” aesthetics.
For the studio shoot, her models (sisters, friends and strangers) embody these alter egos, these stars they would have liked to be, thus forgetting their reality for a moment. In this way, the artist creates her own R’n’B icons and makes her teenage dream come true: becoming the designer of album covers and turning her models into true stars.
Portfolio
About the artist
Born in France in 1993, Elisabeth Gomes Barradas is of Cape Verdean origin. In 2013, she joined the Ateliers des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, then decided to study art in Rennes where she obtained a DNSEP in 2019. Belonging to the Generation 2.0, her artistic approach is closely linked to our contemporary society. She takes inspiration from multiple sources, from 19th-century formulist art through 2000s R’n’B videos to underground cultures. She has developed a unique style close to kitsch aesthetics, sometimes verging on bad taste.