Maggie and the OWLS: Light in Space
Light in Space is an exhibition that honours the traditions and evolving techniques of lacemaking: a practice historically overlooked as a domestic, decorative and amateur craft. Taking shape as a conversation between local lacemaking collective the Outer Western Lacemakers known as the OWLS 鈥� and contemporary lace artist Maggie Hensel-Brown, Light in Space bridges the traditional and the contemporary to reaffirm lacemaking鈥檚 cultural significance, enduring legacy, and dynamic potential as an artistic medium.
Presented in Lewers House Gallery, the former home of artists Margo and Gerald Lewers, Light in Space speaks to the spirit of this site as a place where creativity seamlessly intertwined with everyday life. Lewers House is reminiscent of a certain duality: where tradition meets modernity, passion and unbridled experimentation. Light in Space recalls this very same dualism, celebrating the traditions and origins of lacemaking while exploring the many ways in which its practitioners continue to extend and reimagine our ideas about lace.
The title of this exhibition, Light in Space, is drawn from a quote by Margo Lewers, the full quote reading: 鈥榣ight through colour; light through the garden; light in space.鈥� Though emulative of Margo鈥檚 own practice, this phrase holds special pertinence to the practice of lacemaking. In lace, images are delineated in thread, and it is the light passing through the gaps that brings the patterns to the surface. Shining a light on 鈥� or through 鈥� lace punctuates the image, and it鈥檚 this that reveals the intricately woven connections that make lace what it is. Light in Space invites us to see lacemaking with renewed clarity鈥� bringing an overlooked practice into new light to examine the stories it tells, the histories that have shaped it, and the possibilities it holds for the future.
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Light in Space is an exhibition that honours the traditions and evolving techniques of lacemaking: a practice historically overlooked as a domestic, decorative and amateur craft. Taking shape as a conversation between local lacemaking collective the Outer Western Lacemakers known as the OWLS 鈥� and contemporary lace artist Maggie Hensel-Brown, Light in Space bridges the traditional and the contemporary to reaffirm lacemaking鈥檚 cultural significance, enduring legacy, and dynamic potential as an artistic medium.
Presented in Lewers House Gallery, the former home of artists Margo and Gerald Lewers, Light in Space speaks to the spirit of this site as a place where creativity seamlessly intertwined with everyday life. Lewers House is reminiscent of a certain duality: where tradition meets modernity, passion and unbridled experimentation. Light in Space recalls this very same dualism, celebrating the traditions and origins of lacemaking while exploring the many ways in which its practitioners continue to extend and reimagine our ideas about lace.
The title of this exhibition, Light in Space, is drawn from a quote by Margo Lewers, the full quote reading: 鈥榣ight through colour; light through the garden; light in space.鈥� Though emulative of Margo鈥檚 own practice, this phrase holds special pertinence to the practice of lacemaking. In lace, images are delineated in thread, and it is the light passing through the gaps that brings the patterns to the surface. Shining a light on 鈥� or through 鈥� lace punctuates the image, and it鈥檚 this that reveals the intricately woven connections that make lace what it is. Light in Space invites us to see lacemaking with renewed clarity鈥� bringing an overlooked practice into new light to examine the stories it tells, the histories that have shaped it, and the possibilities it holds for the future.
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