Accession Code: wu1093 Title:Tarh, 11.45am Southall, 2017 Date completed: 2017 Classification: Painting Medium: Oil on linen Height (mm): Width (mm): Depth (mm): Inscription: Location Name: University House Location Description: Foyer Location Floor: 0

© Courtesy of the artist and Ingleby, Edinburgh

As a commission for Kettle’s Yard (University of Cambridge, UK) in 2017, Walker collaborated with the charity Women for Refugee Women to make a series of paintings of women refugees and asylum seekers.

She arranged to visit each of the women wherever they were living. She started by taking hundreds of photographs which she worked up into a series of small oil sketches, sometimes collaging images together to create a fuller sense of the experience.

At times, the expression or body language of the subject suggests there is a disconnection between their surroundings and their thoughts. A further disconnection remains between the viewer and Walker’s subjects. We see her subjects through doorways and windows, turned away or oblivious of our gaze.

Tarh lives in a hostel for asylum seekers in Southall, West London.