The subjects of Ahrarnia’s embroidered portraits are characterised by their duplicitous lives, represented by the needlework cross-stitch.
In this portrait, Ahrania depicts Josephine Baker who was a singer, dancer, civil rights activist and spy.
After finding success in Broadway, Baker moved to France in the 1920’s, where she became one of Europe’s most-popular performers. She obtained French citizenship following her marriage to French industrialist Jean Lion and worked for the Red Cross during the occupation of France in World War II.
Baker also assisted the French Resistance, smuggling messages hidden in her sheet music and photos of German military installations out of enemy territory in her luggage. Her fame made her the perfect spy as fawning customs officials would avoid searching the contents of her suitcases. Baker rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Free French Air Force, and when the war was over she received both the Croix de Guerre and the Medal of the Resistance in 1946.