On the Institute of Modern Artwork in Boston, Tau Lewis (beforehand) presents an unlimited cosmology wherein monumental, mythic beings herald in a brand new world. 5 figures stand almost 11 toes tall in draping clothes, their fingers positioned in distinctive gestures. With titles like “The Doula” and “The Reaper,” every bears a selected position as they loom over a big round quilt on the heart of the gallery flooring.
From discovered materials and objects, Lewis created the towering sculptures for Spirit Degree, her first solo museum present within the U.S. The Toronto-born artist maintains a strong assortment of supplies in her Brooklyn studio, which she painstakingly stitches and sculpts into unearthly beings. These works proceed her curiosity in how objects maintain which means and reminiscence.
Her 2021 determine “Mutasis Moon,” for instance, is an alien-like creature with 4 eyes and turquoise fingers. Wrapped round a galvanized metal and PVC armature, the pleasant painted-leather determine stands with arms outstretched as if welcoming the viewer.
In Spirit Degree, remnants of clothes, muslin scraps dyed with rust, snakeskin, conch shells, and coral bone merge, transposing the supplies’ origins into new contexts. “The Doula,” as an example, wears a darkish inexperienced, blue, and brown robe of leather-based and suede and is what the artist calls a “portrait of the sea.” Conjuring the darkish depths of the ocean, the sculpture alludes to an area the place life and demise coexist.
The gold-outfitted determine is titled “The Handle of the Axe,” which references the epigraph of Alice Walker’s 1992 novel Possessing the Secret of Pleasure that states: “When the axe came into the forest, the trees said, ‘the handle is one of us.’” Arms open for an embrace, the sculpture attracts on the tensions between the need for nonviolence and the wrestle for liberation.
On the heart of the figures is “The Last Transmission,” the sprawling quilt that radiates outward from a starfish on the heart. Small material panels adorned with glass, beads, and wire kind an elaborate patchwork, showing as an architectural portal to a different universe.
Spirit Degree is on view in Boston by January 20, 2025, after which it’s going to journey to David Zwirner in Los Angeles. Discover extra from the artist on her web site and Instagram.
