Conservation

The disconcertingly serene paintings of the Scottish artist Caroline Walker calmly divulge the private moments of her subjects, turning viewer into voyeur. The large-scale oil work Conservation epitomises this practice. Rendered in a muted palette reminiscent of Edouard Manet, it depicts a woman within a domestic setting. Dressed only in a chemise and briefs, she has been captured either removing or replacing an antique vase from a treasury of antique objects. The purpose of her action remains tantalising unknowable, as does her relationship with the objects. This ambiguity is bolstered by a mirrored screen, which captures her and the collection from a diversity of angles. Walker, whose works on canvas emerge from myriad photographs, drawings and sketches, captures an enigmatic moment with fastidiously observed detail. 'My paintings,' she says, 'are formalised fictions concerned with the strange or ambiguous which can arise in the everyday and the banal. They explore the notion of disappointed expectations and a kind of faded grandeur of what could have been.' Since its inclusion in the Saatchi Collection, Walker’s work has been exhibited internationally; last year she was the subject of a solo exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.