Margaret Lewis
Shared Lines: Kaikōura exhibiting artist
Margaret Lewis' Aroha. Photo by Jennifer Shields
AFK / LOL / YOLO / FOMO (2016) Embroidered vintage badmington and squash rackets
Margaret Lewis is a contemporary textile artist using traditional crafting techniques (knitting, crochet, embroidery, macrame) and re- contextualising them by her use of unexpected materials. Self taught her practice could be described as ‘making a silk-purse out of a sow’s ear’, in that her works use easily found (and often discarded) items as her canvas. Originally designing hand crafted fashion her practice changed focus after many of her works (and materials) were destroyed in a fire in 2013. Since then her works have been exhibited at the Waikato Museum, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Splore and ACL Festivals, as well as NZ Sculpture OnShore. She has spoken at UK Conference ‘Making Futures’, CTANZ Fibre Connecting People Symposium and also the CCD Summit Aotearoa.
Focused on re-contextualising craft, Lewis takes stitchcraft from the traditional to the contemporary in its use of non-traditional materials (paintball masks to protect protestors, chicken wire to stitch a fence, sifters and sieves to stitch contemporary samplers and vintage racquets to volleying a conversation) to make social observation and commentary.
Lewis sees her role as an artist and producer is to bridge aesthetics, explore the application of innovative materials, champion excellence in making and to engage different communities in the creation of unique art-works.