Tau Lewis’ Spirit Level at ICA Boston is a breathtaking exploration of material and spiritual transformation. The exhibition features large-scale, hand-sewn sculptures made from discarded fabrics, driftwood, and other found objects, drawing on diasporic traditions of upcycling. Lewis channels personal and collective trauma through her intricately assembled works, offering a vision of healing and reclamation. Her use of materials is steeped in symbolism, turning recycled elements into robust embodiments of memory, migration, and resilience. Each sculpture pulsates almost mystically, inviting viewers to contemplate the physical and metaphysical relationship.
Lewis’s first U.S.museum solo show underscores her unique ability to merge tactile labor with spiritual inquiry. Spirit Level reflects on diasporic survival while embodying an intimate and universal transcendence. It is a must-see for those interested in the intersections of identity, history, and artistic innovation.
Tau Lewis’s sculptural practice operates at the intersection of personal memory, diasporic identity, and collective healing. Her work transforms humble, often discarded materials into intricate soft sculptures, quilts, masks, and assemblages that resonate with profound emotional and cultural depth. A self-taught artist, Lewis’s meditative and tactile approach emphasizes the healing potential of repetitive creative labor. Her choice of materials—previously worn garments, fabrics, photographs, and leather, alongside natural elements like driftwood and seashells—serves as more than mere upcycling. These objects, foraged from Toronto, New York, and Negril, Jamaica, carry the weight of lived histories, both personal and communal.
Lewis also draws upon the resourcefulness embedded within diasporic communities, where the act of working with what’s available becomes a symbol of resilience and reclamation. Her hand-sewn and hand-carved pieces, laden with care and attention, reflect a deeply rooted engagement with ancestral knowledge, particularly in how objects made by hand serve as vessels for memory, emotion, and energy transfer. In this, Lewis aligns her work with the material inventiveness of diasporic traditions—transformative gestures that restore agency, honor cultural lineage, and process historical traumas.
Her assemblages create a dialogue between the personal and the universal, addressing how people move through and are shaped by specific social and cultural landscapes. By imbuing found materials with new life and significance, Lewis’s work gestures toward a broader conversation on healing, reclamation, and the enduring power of the handmade in diasporic traditions.
Tau Lewis: Spirit Level
Aug 29, 2024 – Jan 20, 2025
Fotene Demoulas Gallery
