Kristina Lewis contemplates discarded objects in her immediate urban environment as archaeological finds collected in an unknown and distant future. In Artifact, Lewis reimagines these discards as ceremonial objects, ritualistic tools and protective talismans—the kinds of objects people construct in times of affliction to call upon higher powers.

The passage of time confers value upon the mundane objects of ancient cultures, often discovered in middens (refuse heaps) and graves. Lewis is interested in how, even without modification, our current-day detritus might hold the same interest for future civilizations. Taking it a step further, she artificially and pre-emptively applies order, structure and ritualistic meaning to objects that have none, attempting to impose a sense of importance onto valueless shards. She imagines that a time of limited resources in the near future might drive the construction of such makeshift contraptions in a desperate attempt to reach for cosmological answers—people using whatever remains to activate a connection between the terrestrial and celestial.

Kristina Lewis received her BA from the University of Colorado and her MFA from California College of the Arts. She has exhibited extensively in the Bay Area, including Park Life, Mission 17 Gallery, Queen’s Nails, Johansson Projects, Ampersand, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Oakland Museum of California’s Sculpture Court at City Center, and Sonoma State University Art Gallery. Her work has also been exhibited at Next Art Fair in Chicago and Aqua Art Fair in Miami, and has been included in group shows in Seattle and Los Angeles. Born and raised in Colorado, Lewis currently lives and works in San Francisco.