TAU LEWIS: COLORATURA

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Tau Lewis, “Coloratura,” 2024

(courtesy of the Gallery)

The Polygon Gallery presents a new outdoor installation by Brooklyn-based Canadian artist Tau Lewis. This monumental work marks the sixth installment in a 10-year commissioning partnership with Burrard Arts Foundation, supported by the Chan Family Foundation.

Tau Lewis constructs intricate sculptural portraits and quilts using found, gathered, gifted, and recycled materials drawn from her personal environments. Utilising a wide variety of sculptural techniques, including hand-sewing, direct carving, and assemblage, Lewis’s work honours the materials and modes of creative expression intrinsic to African diasporic histories.

A storyteller as much as a sculptor, Lewis frequently revisits previous bodies of work as though writing the next chapter in their visual narrative. The work installed on The Polygon’s façade draws from the Realm of the T.A.U.B.I.S. (Triumphant Alliance of the Ubiquitous Blossoms of Incarnate Souls) – a series originally developed as the “judicial sector” of Lewis’ sci-fi universe. Reimagined as a profusion of oversized flower vines that breach the Gallery’s roof and climb across the building, the latest realisation carries on the T.A.U.B.I.S. archetype, blossoming year-round. For this work, as in her practice more broadly, Lewis sourced second-hand materials, seeking out weather- and waterproof fabrics including vinyl movie posters, parachutes, boat sails, and firehoses, among others.

Tau Lewis expands on Coloratura with a second site-specific sculpture, Fantasia, located in the Denna Homes Gallery on The Polygon’s upper floor, on view July 12 – September 29 and November 9 – February 22. Fantasia marks Coloratura’s germination point. From here, a lone vine grows up from the central seated figure and into the ceiling, linking the indoor and outdoor works.