Traces

Kitty Wales: Traces

November 9 – February 8, 2026
Reception: November 9, 2025, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Domestic table settings, disassembled furniture and recycled wood are the building blocks of these narrative assemblages. They contain memories that morph over time shifting in and out of the original thread, leaving traces of the past.

This subject matter began in 2019 after studying Mesoamerican codices on a visit to the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. As painted manuscripts, they document bloodlines, history, science, and sacred rituals of Mayan and Aztec rulers. Within tight frameworks, these colorful pictorial languages are activated by symbols and characters. I loosely borrowed that format of recorded history to build beginning stages into storied landscapes.

Discarded objects have always been materials of choice in my work, making use of what we leave behind.  Within each wall construction are fabricated household objects serving as historical icons, reanimating the memories they retain. Altered purposely in their construction, these crockeries and vessels still represent potential utility and purpose despite their misshapen appearance.

Each piece in this series evolves through the process of making and
experimenting, as I build up multiple layers of color and texture with mixed media and paper pulp. Some of these layers are visible while others are buried, erased, or altered to mimic the shifting nature of narrative memory.