ARTIST

Born in 1969, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. Her work brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Hers is a deceptively casual brushstroke. Whether in images a few inches square or ten feet high, fluidity combined with a pragmatic approach to representation seduces and disarms. Almost always depicting women or girls, sometimes in groups but recently in iconic portraits, Joffe’s paintings only waveringly adhere to their source – be it a photograph, magazine page or even a reflection in the mirror – instead reminding us that distortions of scale and form can often make a subject seem more real. 

Joffe's paintings always alert us to how appearances are carefully constructed and codified, whether in a fashion magazine or the family album, and to the choreography of display. There's witty neutrality in a career-spanning line-up that has given equal billing to catwalk models, porn actresses, mothers and children, loved ones and literary heroines. Joffe questions assumptions about what makes a noble subject for art and challenges what our expectations of a feminist art might be. Appropriation of existing imagery has been a cornerstone, particularly in the works for which she first became known. Joffe ennobles the people she paints by rehabilitating the photographic image but, crucially, recognises that it is paint itself – its spatio-temporal complexities rather than attendant theories or sociopolitical ideas surrounding subject matter – that keeps us engaged.

 For Joffe, notions of sensuality and self-disclosure are parcelled up in works of mobile immediacy. Tensions between the scale of the work and the apparent intimacy of the scene depicted heighten already complex narratives about connection, perception and representation that, implicit in the relationship between artist and subject, are extended to the viewer as a series of propositions and provocations. Often laying bare the physical effort of their making and suffused with a palpable empathetic warmth, Joffe’s paintings are nonetheless deeply questioning images about ever-shifting human connections and the endless intricacies of looking.

CHARITY

Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group was set up in 1995 when the UK Immigration Service began to detain people at a small holding centre near Gatwick Airport. They work to improve the welfare and well-being of people held in detention, by offering friendship and support and advocating for fair treatment.

Whether a person has recently arrived in the UK or has been here for many years, the experience of detention is traumatic. People are held for indefinite periods which has a terrible impact on the mental health of those detained. Our volunteers undertake to visit one person weekly, helping to reduce their isolation, showing solidarity and acting as a contact with the outside world.

One of the greatest problems faced by people held indefinitely in immigration detention, is lack of access to good quality legal advice. Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group tries as far as possible to make appropriate referrals on behalf of detainees. By liaising with solicitors, or clarifying the legal process, they try to ensure that everyone they meet receives a fair hearing. They also help people make complaints where appropriate, and collate information, along with other visitors’ groups, with a view to improve the well-being of people in detention.