Changing faces

‘Powder Train means a combination of ideas – it’s all about collaboration,’ says Alisa Connan, one half of Ant & Co, who is behind the Powder Train exhibition opening this week.

Ant & Co is a collaboration between photographer Connan and artist Karl Anthoney, who work together to create beautiful portraits through highly innovative methods.

‘We come from two very different backgrounds,’ says Connan. ‘We decided to create a body of work together and donate the proceeds to charity, so we created a series of portraits of influential people in the arts.’

Connan’s photographs are manipulated by Anthoney, who uses paint, silkscreen printing or other techniques to transform them into an entirely new entity.

Among the famous faces featured in the show are actor Jason Isaacs, Lucian Freud’s muse in Sleeping Benefits Supervisor Sue Tilley, performance artist Theo Adams, singer Remi Nicole actress Olga Kurylenko and, er, one-time Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy – she was the ginger one, remember?

Connan explains, ‘With every person we got in, you can never plan what you’re going to get.  You feed off those people and get a sense of the essence of their personalities – that’s what portraiture is to me. It’s about finding out what’s interesting about them and capturing that on film.’

All proceeds from the show, including sales limited edition screenprints are going to Kids Company, the charity that provides support to vulnerable inner-city children.

There will also be a ticketed dinner and auction on 13 April with the proceeds going to the charity.

Powder Train runs from 3 March – 12 April at Cielo, 3 New Burlington Street, London, W1S