Title: Trance I
Medium: Bronze
Dated: 2020
Unframed: 50 x 19 7/8 x 25 1/8 in. (127 x 50.5 x 64 cm)
In the artwork, Trance, Lewis explored notions of the conscious and the subconscious mind and attempts at reconciling the two. The sculpture resembles a traditional self-portrait bust but are surrounded by a swarming mass of figures representing the conflicting passions that flow from within the self. The closed eye of the figure also refers to a state of tans or dreaming.
Tim Leibrandt (Everard Read Gallery 2020:[s.p]) explained these sculptures as follows:
“In a sense, these works are a literal representation of the war inside one’s head, as the figures of chthonic emotion collide head-on with those of clinical rationality. The works themselves emerge out of a process of anthropomorphising, where Lewis interprets the forms of various rock formations encountered in South African mountain ranges, transforming them into masses of diminutive, writhing figures and striated forms. Despite being affixed as sculptural solids, there is a sense of malleability and transient flux in these pieces, as images flow in and out of consciousness.”
