Telling Fibs, an exhibition of lies by Warren Lewis

Lewis was one of the founders on the art cum clothing shop and gallery; The Bin and has also worked with the popular Circus Ninja brand. He has a strong graffiti street art as well as design background. These influences can be seen in his work, aesthetically, there is a very design like quality to how the show is portrayed as well as a slight irreverent attitude which can be seen in “Glamourish - Portrait of a Slave” which consists of painted black Glamour magazines showing slivers of the original cover beneath the paint. One body of work is a series of four typewriters that have been mangled and manipulated with many of the keys being removed and extra keys added. Once typewriter has only three “W” keys, another has had all its keys replaced with small furry pink buttons while another's spells out “Monday Mourning”.

A large part of the exhibition is made up of a series of framed tiny pulped paper sculptures. All the sculptures are modelled on the shape of a skull and made out of various types of paper; ATM slips and the pages of a Peter Pan, Heidi and Moby Dick novel. These works are meticulously made and humorously titled; “The Alphabet “, “Call me Gmail” and “Heidi li.co.us”. The facts that the pages are modelled on a shape of a skull gives the work a somewhat dark and ominous feel as well as rendering the value of the books redundant as each page has been formed into something exactly the same as the one before.

The title “Telling Fibs, an exhibition of lies”, what does it suggest. Hmm I guess on one level it could refer to the manipulated quality that all the works have, Lewis has taken everyday ordinary objects and transformed and subverted the truth or perceived truth of them in some way, effectively creating a lie. It could also be dealing with the “lie” of consumerism and branding. This can be seen in “Glamourish - Portrait of a Slave” and “Hypnotic Poison / Common scents” Lewis has taken perfume bottles and magazines, objects that could be seen as perpetuating the myth and lies of consumerism and covered them both in black paint, effectively erasing their branding and distorting their message.

“Telling Fibs an exhibition of lies” in fact seems to be quite a harsh criticism on consumerism and the way it homogenises and governs our everyday life, Lewis confronts these issues in a cheeky and humorous way without seeming too heavy or preachy.