Lewis Andrews moved to Leeds in 2016 to study a BA(Hons) in Fine Art at Leeds Arts University. After graduating in 2019, Lewis continues to work in Leeds. In 2022, Lewis completed his Postgraduate Fine Arts Degree also at Leeds Arts University, graduating with a Masters Degree in the Creative Arts. During his Master’s Degree, Lewis’s practice became deeply focused on the methodology of translating information and data from sources within science into artworks. Lewis has continued to work and build upon this method in his work constructing a theory of working called ‘The Informative Encounter’.
Taking place within the scenic Cot Valley a few minutes outside of St Just on the UK's most westerly peninsula, the Mayes Creative 'Dark Skies, Wild Seas, Ancient Places' Artist residency (14th - 18th January 2024) invited like-minded artists to spend the week inspired by the landscape with an arts-science-heritage approach. Activities undertaken by the artists involved included walks among heritage sites dating back to the bronze age, analysing the night sky and sharing ideas and methodologies through group workshops. Lewis was one of the artists invited to take part in the residency. Inspired by previous visits and his surroundings, his works from the residency aimed to capture the aura of the landscape, the heritage associated with the ancient sites visited and the present moment of the location in cosmic time with the night sky. Alongside this were further investigations into his previous endeavours when dealing with emotions and moments that could stimulate notions of the sublime. One of these series of works to be revisited was his ‘Oceanic Sublime’ series of photographic works with the Cot Valley and Cape Cornwall editions.
Inspired by theories of the sublime written by Edmund Burke, the oceanic sublime series aims to document the moments when nature displays great power and dominance. Giant waves, vast sea storms, and chaotic breaks can all lead to emotions similar to those of the sublime.
“The passion caused by the great and the sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror”
Edmund Burke, ‘A Philosophical Enquiry...’, 1757.
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