Caroline Walker’s paintings depict women in the quotidian day-to-day; adopting a documentarian approach, the artist has sought sitters at work in restaurants, shops, nail-bars or in the case of the present work, at home. These scenes combine a sense of looking into the protagonist's sphere with a deep sensitivity, in Joy, Hackney II, the work is imbued with a casual intimacy which hints at the sitter's personal narrative but does not fully reveal her story. The sitter is presented seated on a red bed, the door is slightly ajar, granting the viewer access via a glimpse into her private sphere. In this work and others, Walker makes reference to the patriarchal notions of women within the private arena. In the art historical canon, women were traditionally painted in domestic settings; in her scenes Walker disrupts narrative surrounding women within the realm of traditional portraiture through the performance of gender identity, femininity and reclaiming their representation from the male gaze.