'In a new body of work exhibiting at Victoria Miro in November, Joffe revisits her mother again, now after her death. "It has been both difficult and also very moving to me to revisit memory and family in this way," says Joffe, who works from photographs, spending time preparing for this exhibition by sorting through a jumble of them in a big box. Mostly, the events were significant enough to capture, yet the meaning of them is lost.
"Memory is hard to define," Joffe adds. She brings structure to its fluid nature, filling in the gaps between events half remembered. In her new work, she criss-crosses narrative and perception, eschewing a chronological retelling of her mother’s life for works which celebrate the everyday fragments. The unexpected moments are highlighted and emphasised, much in the same way memory itself works. The moments Joffe chooses to paint are quiet, the antithesis of the big birthday party or wedding. Joffe’s everyday is filled with cups of tea, walks, books, taking a pause on the sofa or at the kitchen table. "Life happens in the everyday," she says, simply.'
