Saint Mozelle in the Aphid Orgy

Lewis completely hand-stitches her intricate, wall-based textile works and freestanding stuffed sculptures in a method she describes as “tender,” but she is also capable of carving denser materials, such as plaster, by hand. “I’m interested in how I can honour and continue diasporic practices of art making, which have been labour intensive,” Lewis says, acknowledging the role played by her Jamaican heritage as well as the larger Black diasporic legacies that inform her work. Lewis uses recycled materials—“the backbone of my art”—to engage with histories of Black cultural production, where repurposing has long been a recuperative activity. “So many of our cultural tools, especially against oppression, have to do with physical or situational upcycling,” Lewis has remarked, whether of “a circumstance or an idea
or an object.”