COCOON

Lydia Ericsson Wärn continually returns to her own reposed body. This repetition has become almost ritualistic – a continued effort to produce new outcomes while revisiting the same subject each time, an ongoing reckoning with the self. In Cocoon, each canvas presents an undefined space that holds a form, the figures suspended between presence and dissolution.

These transitional spaces can be likened to the concept of ‘chora’ – first defined by Plato as a 'receptacle' that holds the form, a precondition for existence. The concept was reinterpreted by the philosopher Julia Kristeva to refer to the pre-linguistic state of an infant before they acquire language or selfhood. Kristeva associates it with the semiotic – a fluid container of rhythm, affect and instinct that supports meaning yet resists definition.

Working intuitively, Lydia’s process mirrors this choric state. Each canvas evolves reactively, allowing gesture and emotion to dictate form. She often refers to the recurring figure as ‘scaffolding’ – an immovable presence that is alternately absorbed into or born from surrounding swathes of colour. Her approach oscillates between concealment and revelation: in Blue Function, Conduit and Pink Brown Analogue, the figure is buried beneath successive layers of oil, while in Blush and Driver the underpainting on primer is left visible as it was first applied.

For Lydia, painting is a fertile ground for renegotiating possibilities and restraints. In this suspended space, the self is not fixed but continually reconstituted.