Bouffant! is a self-portrait series composed of 50 images taken of the back of the artist’s head following moments of intimacy with her partner. Each photograph records a trace of what has just passed – an index of the aftermath rather than the event.
The work takes its title from the bouffant hairstyle: hair raised through backcombing into a tangled internal structure, then smoothed over to create a controlled and polished exterior. Hair spray fixes the form in shape. Here, the bouffant functions as a metaphor for the regulation and aestheticization of erotic energy within patriarchal society. What is underneath, the messy and untamed is essential but obscured in service of a controlled and stylised ‘desirable’ façade.
Bouffant! considers the lived experience of female sexuality through traces that emerge in the aftermath of intimacy – moments when the body resists full composure but the evidence of the encounter lingers. It considers how what is vital and instinctive is often rendered invisible or reformatted to meet external expectations. The act of documentation – images captured by the artist’s lover on an iPhone immediately after sex – introduces questions of authorship, vulnerability and trust.
Note from the artist Sarah Lewis:
“The experience of the erotic in my own life created an impulse to record a trace. This felt urgent – a reminder of who I am while simultaneously living in a culture that often ‘equates pornography and eroticism, two diametrically opposed uses of the sexual” (to quote Audre Lorde). Here, the erotic is not spectacle but knowledge: a site of interiority, power and self-recognition. The intimacy of the encounter is revealed with the image being ‘snapped’ by the ‘other’ on an iPhone after having sex.
NEW BOUFFANT! T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE!
BOUFFANT! at the fabulous Art Car Boot Fair 2026.
PLAY FREE !LIVE EVENT!
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5th 12-6PM
LEWIS CUBITT SQ, KINGS X
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
ONLINE FROM MAY 29TH 100 X 100
LEWIS CUBITT SQUARE WILL TRANSFORM INTO THE ARTISTS PLAYGROUND FOR ONE GLORIOUS AFTERNOON OF ART BUYING, MINGLING & PLAYING.
100 ARTISTS HAVE BEEN INVITED TO ‘PLAY FREE’ & CREATE ARTWORKS SPECIALLY FOR THE ART CAR BOOT FAIR A SPECIAL SERIES OF WORKS WILL BE ON SALE FROM EACH ARTIST FOR £100 OR LESS ON THE DAY
PLUS 20 ARTISTS OFFERING PLAYFUL ENGAGEMENTS!
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, the Century Club in Soho, London hosted a ‘thought-provoking’ conversation with Sarah Lewis and renowned artist Helen Beard – alongside a ‘striking exhibition’ of Bouffant! images.
Bouffant! was shown at IN THE CLOSET, an artist-run space founded by Vsevolod Kovalevskji in Tromsø, Norway and now located at Pelesos g. 10, Vilnius 02111, Lithuania. The gallery is dedicated to showing artistic projects that question the meaning behind gender, identity, sexuality, invisibility, discomfort, censorship, inclusiveness or lack thereof.
“The exhibition of Sarah Lewis dwells into the aftermath of experiences of female sexuality – untamed and unapologetic – signifying a woman’s right to claim autonomy over her sexuality outside the acceptable tropes.” Curator Vsevolod Kovalevskji
Read More Here about successful exhibition
Artist Sarah Lewis with curators Vsevolod Kovalevskji and Sun Park