Image: Hepworth Wakefield
The acquisition and display of Tau Lewis’s ‘Lilith’ (2024) is being marked by the release of a new limited edition by the artist.
For The Hepworth Wakefield, Lewis has created a series of unique wall-based sculptures that she refers to as ‘charms’. The charms combine clusters of hand-sewn blossoms, insects and angels with beads and objects found around London. The blossoms use hand-dyed and painted scrap fabrics and leathers, gold thread, wool, hand-dyed jute and other fibres, while the insects—including aphids, grasshoppers, beetles and butterflies—are made from painted leather scraps, silk and gold thread. The found objects include various keys, pendants and shells.
Self-taught, Lewis makes work concerned with healing personal, collective and historical traumas through sculptural and craft traditions. She uses local found objects collected from her home and travels, describing handmaking as ‘the transference of energy and emotion that occurs when an object is made by hand.’ The charms are inspired by ‘Lilith’ and borrow many of the same leathers and beads used to create it.
