We hope you'll join us at Kiosk Gallery on 3rd Friday, July 16th, as we present dis/re/member, a solo exhibition of assemblage works by Mary Clara Hutchison. In this body of work, Hutchison examines our connection to the objects in our lives, and our tendency to use them to build environments of comfort and familiarity. This project represents a personal ritual of removal and letting go, while simultaneously preserving that which is being destroyed.

Artist Statement: At once an immersive experience, a gruesome dismemberment of a single object, and a collection of discrete pieces, dis/re/member sanctifies a once beloved object and ensures its preservation amidst its death. dis/re/member explores the intimate desire to preserve and encase our memories in physical objects, inventing talismans against aging and forgetting. We collect specimens from our own life, creating museums around and of ourselves. dis/re/member reacts against this urge, both reversing and encouraging the process of preserving an ordinary object. Against a backdrop of over a year spent at home, on the couch, in bed, dis/re/member became a bid to forget. Another form of preservation – self-preservation – directs my mind to allow the past year to fall away in pieces. In this case, memory does not serve. I am exploring this urge to forget, and dis/re/member is a reminder (hah) to keep close and catalogue the experiences of this time.

Bio: Mary Clara Hutchison is an inter-disciplinary artist based in Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas. She works with found and gathered objects alongside traditional craft materials, distorting and manipulating them to create sculptural portraits and dreamscapes. Her work explores the intersections of ritual, memory, home, the sacred, and tradition. She has shown locally and nationally and is a current resident at the Charlotte Street Foundation Studio Residency Program. www.maryclarahutchison.com

Artist’s Reception: Friday, July 16th, 6-9 pm Open Hours: Saturdays 12-4 pm, and by appointment Holiday Closure: Saturday, September 4th for Labor Day weekend