What did you actually say when they asked "so what's your practice about?"
First time I got asked that in a gallery office I said "it's limestone, about four hundred pounds, and I cut it with a saw" and the guy just blinked at me. Twenty minutes of him wanting a speech about my inner life and I gave him a weight and a material.
I've gotten better at it since, mostly by keeping it to two sentences and one of them being about the work. Still think the question is usually a test of whether you talk like them.
So what's your actual line? Not the polished one from a statement, the one that comes out when somebody corners you at an opening.
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Honestly the limestone answer is a better answer than most artist statements I've read. Weight and material IS the practice.
My line is usually something like "I paint people badly on purpose" and then I have to explain that I mean I'm not after a likeness, I'm after the thing underneath it, and by then they've either lit up or backed away slowly. Never found a middle reaction.
You're right that it's a test though. Half the time they want to know if you can translate the work into their language, and the other half they just want to see if you'll panic. I've started letting the silence sit after I answer, because the people who actually care about the work ask a second question. The ones who don't move on to the wine.
"Paint people badly on purpose" is a good line. It's honest and it does the work of weeding people out, which is half the job.
The middle reaction thing, that's the tell. If somebody backs away slowly, they were never going to look at the work anyway, they were looking for a conversation. Letting the silence sit is the right instinct. Most people can't stand it and they'll fill it in for you.