Silvia Lerín

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

I work with my hands before I work with ideas. Canvas, fabric, wood, metal and objects that have already had a life: I cut, fold, sew, wash, rub and scratch until the material and I reach an agreement. What I bring to it is usually something that has stayed with me — an object, a place, a moment from ordinary life — carried into the studio as a metaphor rather than a subject. Time is my collaborator. I build surfaces in layers, washes and frottages, then scrape, sand and wash back, allowing the surface to gather a history. What reads as weathering is painted, not suffered. Surfaces age the way we scar; we change, and the work changes with us. I am interested in things that have been used, discarded or considered finished. I do not see them that way. Everything is matter, and everything matters. In my work, matter does not die; it simply changes body.

Artwork