Catharsis in the Flame: Lydia Makin

Since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2020, she has gained rapid recognition for her immense, expressive and spell-binding abstract paintings. Her powerful new series offers a mischievous meditation on the notion of catharsis, considering it both as an idea which may be depicted visually and as a potential effect produced for the viewer. 

 

First used by Aristotle in the Poetics, 'catharsis' is a frequently deployed term in literary criticism which signifies the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. In Makin's work, this idea of deep-seated feelings, thoughts and memories being pulled to the surface is visually manifested on the canvas. Each work features a rich eruption of intense colour that seems to burst forth from a central tear. Meanwhile, on viewing the paintings, the spectator is met with a deeply effecting colourscape, stunningly rendered in fluid and suggestive brush strokes, which itself has the power to induce an impactful emotional response.