Erin Lawlor’s London studio is a partial refuge, where the contingencies and irrationality of life can be temporarily suspended. It is a place that doesn’t simply service imagination, indeed it is a place where she weaves a fabric using shared historical filaments.
These fibres entwine to construct a swirling, turbulent vortex that forcefully fuses pigment and energy so that the viewer, their senses and their soul are tempted with the simultaneous risk and reward of stepping off the painting’s ledge. With no road-map evident - there is only the allure and uncertainty of a pathway leading into the maze - into the shadow spaces as much as the light.
In the 19th century folksy updating of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur, Hansel and Gretel’s father, aware of the threats that the labyrinthine woods held for his children, trusted in Ariadne’s shrewd approach to navigating the Minotaur’s maze – namely that a road-map in, ought to function as a reliable road-map out. Be it golden thread, pebbles or breadcrumbs, the updating of the fundamental notions of sensible orienteering are required to make it home safely. With the bonus of securing heightened self-knowledge as the by-product of such tests, the gamble feels worthwhile.
Each of the paintings in Ariadne’s Thread demonstrate this swirling invitation. Lawlor’s weaving of colour and gesture take us across the field of the painting and into its body. There are shifts in pressure - the resulting turbulence is felt in the body, the heart and the mind.
This is the fourth solo exhibition that the galleries have made with Erin Lawlor, and her paintings have been included in important projects with the gallery including Raven (Sydney & Auckland), Plastic Soul (Auckland), and Portrait Without a Face (Tokyo). Though there is a deep conceptual cohesion to Lawlor’s practice, her paintings possess an extraordinary capacity to reach across a panorama of identities. These paintings can be simultaneously lyrical and alluring, yet the seductive invitation they extend comes with a ‘fine print’ of peril. The risk of such committed ‘alla prima’ performances is undeniably hazardous to notions of certainty.
