{"id":46324,"date":"2020-12-06T19:18:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T00:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=46324"},"modified":"2020-12-06T19:43:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T00:43:56","slug":"tau-lewis-at-cooper-cole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=46324","title":{"rendered":"Tau Lewis at Cooper Cole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tau Lewis\u2019 solo exhibition at Cooper Cole, Triumphant Alliance of the Ubiquitous Blossoms of Incarnate Souls<\/em>, explores a paradisiacal world both timeless and tethered to this one. Lewis generates the realm of the T.A.U.B.I.S. at Cooper Cole \u201cto explore desires for abundance, safety, deep roots, and justice.\u201d Sectioned around three figures, Lewis has hand-stitched and hand-dyed upcycled materials into unforgettable textile sculptures. Though in-person viewing was cut short by Toronto\u2019s lockdown restrictions, in its final week, the realm of T.A.U.B.I.S. was accessible by gazing through the well-lit windows of Cooper Cole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Triumphant Alliance of the Ubiquitous Blossoms of Incarnate Souls<\/em> view from the Cooper Cole Gallery window at night<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nquantity of physical and emotional labour put into this work can be detected in\nthe intimacy and care evident in every detail. Lewis began collecting and dying\nfabrics approximately one year before the exhibition, some materials having\nbeen gathered and held onto from much earlier. The result is an environment\nthat appears to be in constant transformation yet also seems to have existed\nforever. In conversation with Cooper Cole, Lewis shares her connection with\nupcycled materials, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m a treasure hunter\u2026 That\u2019s been a part of\nmy life since childhood.\u201d In her artwork, Lewis uses second-hand clothes,\ntextile waste, gathered shells, and even sacrifices personal jewelry all in the\nname of sharing the love and lives of the items\u2019 previous owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Lewis, the process of creation is healing in itself. In her studio, she doesn\u2019t abandon life but instead takes a departure from it. In the gallery, Lewis hopes viewers can take their departures as well, departures that are well-needed in such a new and wearisome time as this. With such love for the process, Lewis finds it difficult to name her pieces and watch them exit the studio. Her sometimes long titles are products of her labouring love and need to share sentiments that a single word cannot express.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tau\nLewis, T.A.U.B.I.S., 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole of Lewis\u2019 oeuvre<\/em> connects in ways known only to her in a non-linear exploration of a bigger story. Triumphant Alliance of the Ubiquitous Blossoms of Incarnate Souls <\/em>showcases the first time the artist’s clarification of these relationships for her audience, done largely through the exhibition text, allowing the viewers to fully enter her conceived world of abundance and safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMutable and devoid of gender, they transmute into blossoms. Every blossom embodies a soul who is alive and listening. T.A.U.B.I.S. blossoms grow year-round, uni-wide, even in most harsh weather and on most hostile planets. The T.A.U.B.I.S communicate and collect intel through these blossoms.\u201d<\/em> – Tau Lewis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The T.A.U.B.I.S. figures embody the essence of genderless fairy godmothers; they are the unconditional providers of motherly love and comfort. By Lewis, Symphony<\/em> embodies this fairy godmother spirit best of all. With energetic lines and powerful stillness, Symphony <\/em>stands visible from the street, displaying a delicate colour palette of pastel pinks and yellows. Lines of blossoms\u2014souls cascade down from above and tether the figure to both the earth and the cosmos. Symphony<\/em> exudes the safety of a \u201cmotherly overlord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tau Lewis, Symphony, 2020 (bottom) & detail (top)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past\na forest-like gathering of blossoming souls, Delight<\/em> sits in the corner. This figure exudes wisdom appearing to\nbe in an engaging conversation with the blossoms that surround them. Delight<\/em>, like the rest, is the product\nof intimate labour and a representation of a community of ancestors\nwell-understood if never seen. Lewis\u2019 transformation of recycled materials\ntells a story rooted in the past and reflects the artist\u2019s inwardness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tau Lewis, Delight, 2020 (bottom) & detail (top)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cmotherly overlord,\u201d Opus (The Ovule)<\/em> is a towering head with bright discerning eyes and a tongue extended forward. A head so large in scale can\u2019t help but impose a sense of endless and eternal wisdom. Indeed, in the realm of the T.A.U.B.I.S. the Ovule is an essential but vulnerable source of knowledge and power. Lewis began work on this figure in 2017 in Kingston, Ontario, collecting textiles but limited by the few objects accessible to her there. \u201cOpus slept for a couple of years,\u201d says Lewis, and here the figure finally emerges in this 2020 exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tau Lewis, Opus (The Ovule), 2020 (bottom) & detail (top)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world where justice and goodness are at times hard to locate, the T.A.U.B.I.S. provide us with an unmatched system of comfort. While science fiction plays a large role in her works, Lewis takes care to point out that science fiction is often about examining the present from new perspectives despite the genre’s futuristic connotations. In this way, the realm of the T.A.U.B.I.S. gives us the opportunity to both depart from our world and locate the often-elusive love within it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Mariko Hsuen-Ferris<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images are courtesy of Cooper Cole Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Exhibition\ninformation: Tau Lewis, Triumphant\nAlliance of the Ubiquitous Blossoms of Incarnate Souls<\/em>, October 17 –\nNovember 28, 2020, Cooper Cole, 1134 Dupont Street, Toronto. Exhibition images\nand text remain on the Cooper Cole website<\/a> for viewing. \n\nArtist talk: In Conversation with\nTau Lewis | Cooper Cole<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Olivia Mariko Hsuen-Ferris<\/strong><\/p>\n

the realm of the T.A.U.B.I.S. gives us the opportunity to both depart from our world and locate the often-elusive love within it<\/p>\n

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