In Tawny Chatmon's words, "This piece, a portrait of a Black woman standing against an 18th-century oil painting, wears a decorated hat that I adorned with golden flowers and brooches (including a Blackamoor brooch). Although the Blackamoor has a history of reducing Black figures to an ornamental status, it continues to circulate and be replicated. I’ve included it intentionally, as an act of reclaiming the Black body, positioning it instead as an ancestral relic. Alongside it are a bird and a bee brooch, both symbols often linked to ancestral guidance. Birds, in particular, are believed to move between heaven and earth, carrying messages from our loved ones and ancestors.

The hat is inspired by the elegant church hats worn by my grandmother, my aunts, and many Black women who dressed in their finest for Sunday service. While I’m not a churchgoer myself, the memory of their pride in getting dressed up has stayed with me."