Lewis Andrews is a Fine Artist based in Leeds, United Kingdom. His work specialises in dealing with complex thoughts, ideas and facts within nature and science. Some explore those in which we seem to be overshadowed and overpowered in comparison by the vast distances, size or quantities. Others investigate moments of extreme power, creation and rebirth on a molecular scale or on a scale comparable to that of the universe. Questioning our relationships, place and role within the universe, environment and natural spaces.
The ‘Wanderer’ series of photographs (first created due to Lewis’s time on the ‘Ancient Materials’ arts-science residency) attempts to visualise the ancient asteroids and comets of our early solar system. This brought to mind a chapter from ‘Origins; Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution’ by Neil deGrasse Tyson & Donald Goldsmith. In this chapter, the possibilities of how the early asteroids of our solar system brought new elements and molecules (including water molecules in the form of ice) to early Earth are explored and may have a role to play in the kick-start of life on our planet. It is theorised that dust grains and small rocks floating within this cosmos act as a perfect surface for atoms to collect upon and interact. ‘Wanderer’ attempts to visualise those early travellers of the cosmos while simultaneously touching upon our connection through materials and atomic elements to the heavens. Through the use of found rocks on the surfaces which we walk up and down going about our everyday lives, the work concurrently connects ourselves and Earth to those ancient times as well as serves as a reminder that we are still deeply connected to the life cycles of the cosmos.