Sarah Lewis is an interdisciplinary artist with an MA in Artists Film & Moving Image from Goldsmiths College, London. Her work has been presented theatrically, via broadcast, and in a gallery context.
Weaving Workshop at Hopscotch
In 2023, I facilitated a weaving workshop with a group of women Afghan refugees who were living temporarily in a London hotel. The repetitive motion of weaving and the community aspect can help to alleviate grief; my research while working with the women was around weaving as an act of resistance in the face of personal trauma.
BOUFFANT, 2024
3 mins 16 secs / moving image
InTheCloset gallery
Curator: Vsevolod Kovalevskij
Opening February 15th – March 10th
Address: Pelesos g. 10,
Vilnius 02111, Lithuania
In this work the idea of the bouffant hairstyle is a metaphor for the attempt to control the expression of erotic energy in a patriarchal society. What is underneath, messy and untamed is essential but obscured in service of a stylised façade.
The experience of the erotic in my own life forced 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 Audry Lorde). The intimacy of the encounter is revealed with the image being ‘snapped’ by ‘the other’ on an iPhone.
“The exhibition of Sarah Lewis dwells into the aftermath of experiences of female sexuality- untamed and unapologetic – signifying a women’s right to claim autonomy over her sexuality outside the acceptable tropes.” Curator Vsevolod Kovalevskij
IN THE CLOSET is an artist-run space founded by Vsevolod Kovalevskij in Tromsø, Norway 2020, 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.
Compete For Me by Lewis Walker was performed for the Resolution Festival at The Place, London, (Feb, 2024)
Participated as a co-collaborator and performer.
CUTS x Lower Stable Street (2023) – outdoor light box exhibition featuring portraits shot by Steve Brooks in the ‘90s and ‘00s in the basement of cult Soho hairdressers CUTS – programmed by Kiosk N1C, an event space on Lower Stable Street, Coals Drop Yard, London.
An accompanying exhibition to No Ifs Or Buts documentary.
Sarah Lewis (2023) standing next to image of Sarah Lewis (1996)
The 2nd edition of the CUTS book was launched at Reference Point followed by a Q&A with Sarah Lewis and Jonah Freud.
NO IFS OR BUTS (2018)
93min / documentary
BFI London Film Festival, 2018
THE NEXT LAYER (2018)
128 mins
Goldsmiths University- MA Artists’ Film & Moving Image
Pass The Baton (2019)
HD, found footage
Deptford X Festival, Nov 2019
SET Lewisham
Front Gallery
SE13 7RZ
SHORT STRAW by Ballpark Collective
Artlicks Weekend 2019
Set Lewisham
London SE13 7RZ
DEATH BY BLONDE (2019)
5 mins
Super 8mm / DV footage
SET; London, SE1 3AW
NESTING (2009)
Sculpture / Performance
THE BOY WHO WOULDN’T DIE (2010 – 2022)
90 minute documentary
VIDEO DIARIES (2011)
2 Channel Video
Center for Contemporary Photography (CCP), Melb, Australia
“Sarah Lewis worked on a series of video diaries with the students at The Pavilion School. The school is an alternative educational setting for young people who are disengaged from education and training. The classes are run in a safe environment that is conducive to psychosocial rehabilitation and the staff are experienced at working with at-risk youth.
Over a period of one week each student captured footage for a personal and intimate video diary. No topic was rejected as long as it portrayed something of their identity.Technical aspects of the filmmaking process were discussed and the students also learnt about the basic legal and ethical responsibilities unmaking reality videos.
In the final stage, Sarah Lewis worked with the students on a narrative to reflect each student’s life at that moment in time. The ‘Video Diary’ project was shown at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP)”
This project was made possible through a Victorian State Government ‘Artists in Schools’ grant.
THE STARING GIRL (2006)
16mm / 10 mins / fiction film
The Staring Girl follows a young girls journey and her quest for authentic expression. Exploring the complex world of a young girls mind we become aware of the conflicting feelings that result from a need to be true to herself in the midst of others expectations of her.
European Media Arts Festival (Germany) – recipient of an AFC travel grant
International Women’s Film Festival (Germany)
AFIA (Denmark)
IFCT (MCA/ Washington DC)
Madcat (San Francisco)
CCP (Centre for Contemporary Photography/Melbourne)
CROWDED HOUSE
30 min documentary
16mm
Channel 4 (UK) ABC (Australia)
