Tau Lewis: Shreds of Memory | Art21 "New York Close Up"

- [Tau] Keep working on
that for a little bit

and then I'm gonna start on my thing.

Okay.

It's really easy to lose yourself

within the making part of things.

(eccentric effects playing)

- [Camera Assistant] One A take one mark.

- [Assistant] See if it's
right and then I can tweak it.

- [Tau] Yeah.

I have a very deep kind
of interior private life.

I've been that way since I was a child.

♪ Are you okay? ♪

(ambient music)

♪ Sit down ♪

- [Tau] Had a hard time
speaking, intentionally quiet.

And I also really struggled
with communicating

and getting my ideas out.

(ambient woodwind music)

Sculpture has been really
important to that interior self.

- [Assistant] I love it.
It looks really good.

Oh yeah. You did a good job on that.

We're trying to do invisible around--

- [Tau] It's seamless.
Yeah, it's beautiful.

- [Assistant] Yeah.

Sorry, I'm trying to pin this down.

- [Tau] I'm making my own interpretations

of some of the things that I absorb.

The exciting thing about fabric,

when it's not brand new it has
character, it's mysterious.

I love the imperfection

and I love wondering
about their secret lives.

We use every single piece of scrap.

The floor gets swept at the end of the day

but then we collect the little pieces.

When we accumulate enough of them,

make new fabrics out of them.

So each new sculpture has a piece

of an older one embedded in it.

They share shreds of the same
memory and the same truth.

(eccentric percussion music)

I'm specifically interested
in the masks as objects

which are used directly in
the process of communicating

with a spirit or a God
or sometimes an ancestor.

I began looking at Yoruba masks,

ceremonial ritual masks

and thinking about their functions.

The wearer of the mask
comes with a message.

They're able to deliver the message

when the mask is possessing them.

(scissors cutting)

(scissors cutting)

(machine sewing)

(scissors cutting)
(electric piano music)

A lot of Black creation is an upcycling

regardless of a lack thereof,
regardless of an access to.

I would position myself
in the DIY kind of nature,

taking things as they are
and letting them shine.

(electric piano music)
(faint voice messages playing)

There's a sense of calm
when I'm here alone

with the objects as well,

the way that they kind of
preside over the studio.

I feel held by them.

(ambient electric piano music)

During the process of making the artworks,

there's sort of a yearning
feeling that comes off of them.

I don't know.

I would say it's like
a need for recognition.

When you spend so much
time fixated on touching

and handling, sometimes
swaddled in the material even,

you're kind of bonded to it in a way.

And everything I make is
part of this process of

showing them I've heard you

and these are the symbols that
I've made in response to you,

and you're being seen.

The stories are not really new.

They're being interpreted differently.

The materials are not new.

They're now contributing themselves

in a different form and

this is really wonderful.

(ambient electric piano music)