Kristen
by Chantal Joffe
2008
Archival Pigment Print
Image size: 130x103 cm
Limited edition of 15
Unframed
Joffe has a 'disorder' in the sense that, working within the often anti-intuitive context of contemporary art, she not only seeks the truth of human emotions, but does so with unfashionable compassion and humanity. Diligently, thoughtfully, she attends to the one thing that is of most visual interest to human beings and their visual artists: the face - or, perhaps we should say, to the emotions and feelings as the face reveals and expresses them.
Joffe's expressive works in oils and watercolours, which frequently drip, smudge, and blur, capture Kristen at ease, in the contemplative mode of a life-model relaxing into a long pose; the accompanying black and white images taken by Aldridge during those sessions pay homage to that naturalism.