Lewis is a producer and DJ from London, England. As an artist, he is strongly influenced by poststructuralist and posthumanist geographies, psychedelic and surrealist art, as well as his own experience in Southeast Asia and his early life growing up in Tokyo, Japan. Through his music, Lewis seeks to increase awareness of and engagement with planetary and humanitarian struggle. For Lewis as an artist and spectator, music is a medium through which one can understand their positionality in regard to such struggles. In this way, Lewis perceives art as a powerful means of grassroots social and political transformation.
‘Pala (And So You Arrived)’ is the artist’s personal interpretation of Aldous Huxley’s final novel ‘Island’. The work – inspired by Huxley’s own political message – explores spirituality and the sacredness of nature through psychedelic and spacey sonics. The erratic percussion and shouts juxtapose the ethereal melodies and vocals – a metaphor for the conflict between small island states and the systemic control that extractive capitalism has had over Pacific spirituality and human-nature relations. The work features an excerpt of Huxley’s discussion of psychedelic use which seeks to promote the potential of psychedelics for balancing human egoism with ecocentric philosophies.
