I drew them in chalk and charcoal on grey cardboard, seated, lit from their right, holding an empty box on their lap like a gift. We listened to Max Richter’s recomposition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, we looked directly into one another’s eyes, we didn’t speak at all.

It’s an unusual privilege to be granted such intimate access to a stranger, such a sustained encounter with the assumptions, perspectives and biases we inevitably overlay onto the face of the other. As always, a portrait of another is also a self portrait. Each of the portrait sitters is a co-author of the work. Each is depicted holding a gift expressed in vivid colour which we evolved together from their stories. Congregation brings the portraits together as an illuminated sculpture within St Mary l.e. Strand church, a collective portrait of those who bring their gifts to London. - Es Devlin