Lavinia HARRINGTON

Lavinia Harrington works primarily on paper, using in particular handmade papers to which she applies pastels, raw pigments and water-based materials, responding to the tactual sensation, fragility and intensity of the medium. Much of her visceral process involves the folding and layering of paper, often applying the pastel or pigment directly onto the sheet laid flat on the floor, while collage and assemblage are also an important part of her method. As the artist has stated, ‘My pieces emerge over many unseen, unresolved layers and erasures, and are folded and unfolded in the process...I believe in, and am sensitive to, the inherent agency of colour and material…Working with paper has become integral to my practice for the intimacy and immediacy it elicits.’

In a recent interview, Harrington has added that ‘Since I can remember, colours and music have provoked visceral and at times overlapping sensory experiences; with colours evoking vivid textures and sounds, and music feeling tactile as fabric. It’s hard for me to explain my process in words, as I work instinctively and often draw from entangled emotions and physical sensations in flux by fully immersing myself in the process. Each drawing, if I manage not to rip it up or overwork it, eventually finds its own rhythm. But getting to that stage can take a long time, the final marks emerge over many unresolved and unseen layers. I know a work is finished when it feels strangely familiar.’ The artist has also noted that her compositions are ‘guided by a steady process of personal cartography. I understand my works in part as maps of felt experiences.’

This large pastel work was completed in December 2022.