Dale Lewis

In The Strawberry Thief, Lewis comments on the Gen-Z trend of "bedrotting", wherein young people and teenagers spend up to five days at a time in bed scrolling on mobile phones, sleeping, eating and drinking. Starting as a trend on TikTok, it has become a shorthand for shirking responsibilities, withdrawing from school, society and social activities. Lewis borrows painterly gestures and forms from Francis Bacon’s painting ‘Two Figures’ (1953), one of his early double portraits of two men together on a bed, affectionately known as ‘The Buggers.’ 

Surrounding the intertwined subjects are pieces of ephemera and posters taken from Lewis’ actual bedroom; a Korean print of female farmers; a Greek saint of nursing and wine gesturing upwards towards a glass, a can of K cider. Above both figures is a window to the outside world, resplendent with a smudged rainbow; the natural environment which they have chosen to turn their back on, opting for a more digital and interior existence.