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Indepth Arts News:

"Andrew Lewis: Systems"
2002-04-17 until 2002-05-17
Institute of International Visual Arts
London, , UK

Andrew Lewis' sculptural work explores the impact of urban systems on everyday lives. Via a mixture of political engagement, consummate craftwork and a wayward sense of humour, Lewis exposes the gap between the true nature of multi-racial Britain and the tourist industry's pastoral idea of the nation. Systems, Lewis' solo show at TheSpace at inIVA, features several newly commissioned projects.

Southern Hospitality is realised in fired ceramic, which represents a 'new media' for Lewis. A clutch of houses nestles at the bottom of a cliff. A white precipice overhangs this terrace of homeliness, whilst the waves lap ominously below. Here, Lewis defines the quintessential folk image of Britain, a landscape that is often suffused with a latent suspicion of incomers.

In White Van Men GB, twelve replica white transit vans are jammed together in the middle of a road junction. Originally representing the ubiquitous mode of transport for the small business operator, Lewis meshes a potentially inflammatory road rage situation with lovingly crafted, finely detailed handiwork.

Race-ism and Winos-complexity Fruit are metaphors for the vagaries of human behaviour, from the futility of racism to the universality of drunkenness. Whilst engaging with beauty and humour in equal measure, Lewis observes and documents a contemporary Britain that is wholly at odds with the high-tech, post-industrial country it wants to be.

Andrew Lewis lives and works in Croydon. In the early 1990s he trained as an architect at North London University and the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow. Lewis has recently been showing in gallery spaces; his previous solo exhibitions include Ark Royale with Cheese, Laurent Delaye Gallery, London; and The Spatial Awareness Show, fig-1, London. Andrew Lewis is represented by Laurent Delaye Gallery, London.

IMAGE:
Andrew Lewis
Ark Royale - Double Cheese, 2001.
Courtesy Laurent Delaye Gallery


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