Double take

It’s hard to pinpoint why Yvonne Todd’s hyper-real portraits are so mesmerising and unsettling at the same time. The artist, a commercially trained photographer, likes to make her work very precise yet with opaque meaning, and that not-quiteright aesthetic makes you look twice. Of her cover image Egg-Self she describes the character as a hippie vampire, toting eggs in macrame holders. “I envisaged her wearing a monastic robe in yellow linen with unfinished hems. My mother sewed it for me. We often hang out at Spotlight Wairau Park, browsing fabrics and trims. This work is from a series I made last year called Tuba, that had a skewed psychedelic sensibility.” Yvonne works with both agency models and amateurs; anyone who has an arresting look and a connection with her intention. For her new work, Turquoise, Yvonne chose Russian model Anna Vakalo (represented by 62 Management), who will make an appearance at the Art Fair opening party where the portrait will hang at the McLeavey Gallery stand. “Occasionally I become obsessed with a piece of clothing and have to use it in my work. For this image, I chanced upon a Pierre Cardin couture piece from the late 1960s. It’s an homage to the early 20th century couturier Paul Poiret’s “lampshade” tunics. And it’s a nutty dress, yet rather chic. I also enjoy daisies, they seem so optimistic, and this dress has them. I’m a fantasist and have a compulsion to create characters far removed from my suburban world. For the past six months I’ve been on maternity leave, wearing old slouchy clothes and feeling generally unkempt, binging on crackers. I had a craving for glamour.”