Artwork
#masks
#mythology
#sculpture
#Tau Lewis
#textiles
November 10, 2022
Grace Ebert
Translating to “the voice of the individuals is the voice of god,” Vox Populi, Vox Dei is artist Tau Lewis’s reimagining of historic programs and ideas. The Latin phrase is commonly related to the British Whig occasion and the institution of secular democracies all through Europe, though Lewis hones in on the saying’s lingering non secular reference as she envisions monumental characters who’ve emerged from an apocalypse.
Six sculptural masks populate the gallery at 52 Walker for the artist’s ongoing solo present, which explores what she describes as “the incapacity of humankind to create buildings of regulation, ideas of morality, or hierarchies of presidency and not using a reliance on the imaginary.” The monumental works, the biggest of which stands upwards of 13 toes, meld classical myths, modern science fiction, and the dramatic performances related to Yoruban masking traditions. Targeted on the concept of transformation following destruction, the gathering engenders a joyful, hopeful outlook.
Born in Toronto and now based mostly in New York, Lewis’s world-building is exclusive and notably expansive because it connects myriad our bodies of labor: every character inside Vox Populi, Vox Dei accommodates fragments of the artist’s earlier tasks, engendering what she phrases a “materials DNA” that programs all through her oeuvre. In the same vein, the sculptures pay homage to the legacies of the materials themselves. The artist stitches salvaged textile scraps, donated leather-based, and remnants from a Lengthy Island furrier into patchwork eyes and lips, tousled hair-like fringe, and vibrant floral tendrils that dangle and pool on the ground. Otherworldly and imposing, the works are totems for an imagined future.
In the event you’re in New York, you’ll be able to see Vox Populi, Vox Dei via January 7, 2023, and Lewis’s work can be included in Black Atlantic, which is up at Brooklyn Bridge Park via November 22. Discover extra of her genealogical archive on her website and Instagram.
#masks
#mythology
#sculpture
#Tau Lewis
#textiles
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