In Majesty, signs of power

In Majesty portrays historical and mythological sovereigns without their traditional emblems of power. An orb becomes a disco ball, a sceptre a handkerchief, a crown a pair of sneakers, an arrow a rifle. Each substitution replaces authority's ceremonial object with something contemporary and ordinary, stripping majesty down to a body, a gaze and a single incongruous prop. Painted against a flat black background that removes any historical setting, the figures, Napoleon, Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Joan of Arc among them, become studies in restraint rather than grandeur. The series asks what remains of power once its symbols are gone.