Lisa Brice After Ophelia

By Skye Sherwin

Lisa Brice has looked to Caribbean culture to create this badass redux of Millais's painting of the drowned Ophelia a supine martyr to a broken heart - the one that the model Lizzie Siddal posed for, notoriously nearly freezing to death in a bath. Instead of a watery grave, Brice's woman emerges from a cheap plastic ribbon curtain. No sad wilted bouquet for this lady: she has a joint in one hand and, in the other, a Stag beer, a so-called 'man's drink' in Trinidad. Her skin is the blue of carnival devils and the cat is more witch's familiar than pet. Like the decidedly undomestic-looking feline, you feel this single woman is a predator not a victim.