Self-taught sculptor Tau Lewis could be described as a "rag and bone artist". This is not a negative definition, but a way to honour her (sustainable) modus operandi.
In her works Lewis mainly employs indeed materials that are immediately available to her: the most extraordinary and original pieces she created so far are the ones she made when she didn't have any money or had no materials left and went to look for them not in art stores, but in thrift shops.
Born in Toronto in 1993 to a family of Jamaican ancestry, Lewis had her first studio in the Coffin Factory, Toronto; then she joined the RAGGA NYC collective and she now lives and works in Brooklyn.
She established herself among other talented young sculptors thanks to her "outsider" aesthetic, that she uses to analyse the history of the African diaspora and the representations of Black bodies, while addressing themes such as memory and recovery.
The artist believes in the potential for emotive transference in found materials (so far she has used in her works scraps of fabrics and leather, rocks and seashells, found photographs, chains, paint cans, pipes and toys, just to mention a few ones) and therefore the practice of integrating recycled materials in her works means for Lewis to allow the stories embedded in them to keep on living. At the same time, her artworks become vessels for the memories carried by the repurposed materials.
Some of her quilted tapestries, soft sculptures and plaster figures are also very personal and intimate: in one of her first soft portraits from 2017, a monkey-like figure on a swing, Lewis incorporated her own dreadlocks.
Lewis has so far exhibited in various institutions including MoMA PS1, New York, and Mercer Union, Toronto. In 2020 she had her first major museum acquisition when the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, bought "The Tongue and the Teeth". For the first time her work is currently being showcased in Italy at the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice.
At the Biennale Lewis is presenting (in a section of the Arsenale) monumental masks (they are three metres tall) from her "Divine Giants Tribunal" (2021) series. Seen from a distance, the masks seem to be made with soft materials following a pleasing chromatic synergy; yet, look more closely, and you will discover an entire world, as these sculptures are assemblages of leather pieces and textiles, put together through painstakingly long processes of sewing, quilting and dyeing.
The starting point for these pieces was a fur mask that the artist produced in 2016 (part of another sculpture that Lewis dismembered and redistributed into several other artworks), but also Yoruba masks and the writings of Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka.
The catalogue notes of the Venice Biennale state there are connections between Lewis' practice and the work of Gee's Bend quilters, the textiles of Faith Ringgold, the assemblages of Betye Saar, and the dreamlike "shack" sculptures of Beverley Buchanan.
Lewis employs techniques and practices associated with women's labour and crafts to talk about art, identity, bodies, nature and rituals. The upcycled materials point at what she calls physical or situational upcycling and the masks can be interpreted as talismans that welcome visitors, artworks that, rather than merely being inspired by the Black diaspora, create portals to another dimension to learn and debate key issues about revolving around the perceptions of Black people and Blackness in America.
The pieces created for Venice were physically and emotionally demanding: hand-stitched from scrap fabrics, recycled leather, fur and suede, these mythical objects fill the space in an almost magical way.
Who knows, maybe one day we will se Lewis taking up the space of an entire national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, but you can bet that, before then, she will be invited to create installations for a fashion runways or to collaborate with a fashion house (she will be exhibiting at Paris' Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2023/2024).
There is just one dilemma that remains about her Venice Biennale installation: Lewis often embeds secret bits and pieces - talismans, hand-written poems and letters or fragments from other artworks that she created earlier - in her works to create a personal relationship with each piece and almost to imbue them with her own DNA and give them a life of their own. Guess we will never find out what Lewis buried in the masks on display in the Arsenale, but it must be some kind of powerful talisman judging from the magnetic and mesmerising power her masks have so far had on visitors.
Image credits for this post
1.
Tau Lewis
Vena Cava, 2021
Recycled leather, acrylic paint, coated nylon, steel armature
330 cm × 310 cm × 122 cm
2 - 3.
Tau Lewis
Sol Niger (With my fire, I may destroy everything, by my breath, souls are lifted from putrified earth), 2021
Recycled leather, coated Nylon, steel armature
304.8 cm × 310 cm × 122 cm
4 - 5.
Tau Lewis
Angelus Mortem, 2021
Recycled fur (mink, beaver, fox, rabbit, lamb, and sable), coated nylon, steel armature
330 cm × 355.6 cm × 116.8 cm
All works with the additional support of Stephen Friedman Gallery. Thanks to donations to the Canadian Friends Fund of La Biennale, at KBF CANADA
All images in this post show Tau Lewis' installation at the Arsenale, the 59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams. Photos by: Roberto Marossi. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
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