81 THE FOREST VISITS
02-01-2024
02-01-2024
In an exhibition of new animal-form works by Tim Lewis, a series of kinetic sculptures made from repurposed found objects and materials have been reconfigured to suggest an uncanny encounter between organic matter and industrial processes.
The title Forest Visit refers to a major work in the exhibition in which two discarded Christmas trees are suspended and morph into a mutant hybrid life form with an echidna head. The sculpture whistles out in response to the viewer's movements, using bells to seemingly issue an open and unspecified call to action to the viewer.
Lewis's work is often inspired by science fiction, including writers such as Philip K. Dick or Stanislaw Lem and the works themselves often suggest a speculative future. In this exhibition, Lewis also looks to the current landscape, referencing footage from the depths of the ocean in a new body of work entitled Sargasso Bottom. In this work, Lewis draws on the current reality of a seabed covered in human-generated plastics, while also reflecting the natural world's ongoing resourcefulness and adaptation to environmental change.
Lewis's figures are brought to life by inorganic materials such as laminated resin, discarded coat hangers, poles and wires, and are carefully designed to mimic the movement of the human/animal body. A work titled "Die Hacke" recalls the process of harrowing and tilling the earth, addressing the relationship of humans to the earth and our creation of nature. The work also introduces the concept of miscommunication, in which Lewis describes the gestures of mechanical creatures as representing something lost in translation, as if "extracting information from the air, such as radio signals".
In Serpent, a large-scale mechanical sculpture of a red snake, Lewis has assembled the animal's body from a composite of sliding parts that gracefully combine to form a sliding whole and then disintegrate again in successive cycles. The ephemeral nature of this work reflects what Lewis calls "half-dreaming," using fragments of remembered information to construct imaginative visions of the future.
The title Forest Visit refers to a major work in the exhibition in which two discarded Christmas trees are suspended and morph into a mutant hybrid life form with an echidna head. The sculpture whistles out in response to the viewer's movements, using bells to seemingly issue an open and unspecified call to action to the viewer.
Lewis's work is often inspired by science fiction, including writers such as Philip K. Dick or Stanislaw Lem and the works themselves often suggest a speculative future. In this exhibition, Lewis also looks to the current landscape, referencing footage from the depths of the ocean in a new body of work entitled Sargasso Bottom. In this work, Lewis draws on the current reality of a seabed covered in human-generated plastics, while also reflecting the natural world's ongoing resourcefulness and adaptation to environmental change.
Lewis's figures are brought to life by inorganic materials such as laminated resin, discarded coat hangers, poles and wires, and are carefully designed to mimic the movement of the human/animal body. A work titled "Die Hacke" recalls the process of harrowing and tilling the earth, addressing the relationship of humans to the earth and our creation of nature. The work also introduces the concept of miscommunication, in which Lewis describes the gestures of mechanical creatures as representing something lost in translation, as if "extracting information from the air, such as radio signals".
In Serpent, a large-scale mechanical sculpture of a red snake, Lewis has assembled the animal's body from a composite of sliding parts that gracefully combine to form a sliding whole and then disintegrate again in successive cycles. The ephemeral nature of this work reflects what Lewis calls "half-dreaming," using fragments of remembered information to construct imaginative visions of the future.
