Exhibitions
HEIRLOOMS: STRANGE LOGICS OF INHERITANCE
Wavelength Space / 854 McCallie Ave. December 12, 2025 - February 6, 2026
Belle Arp, Jordan Burch, Lea Cawthorne, Lillian Dent, Milo Elliott, Bridget Enderle, Abi Ogle, Angelica Raisch, Van Sawyer, Natalie Thedford, Barbara Campbell Thomas, Tiffany Hawkins, Melissa Loney, Madeline Mace, Alena Mehic, Sidney Mills, Shug Munic
Wavelength Space is pleased to announce Heirlooms: Strange Logics of Inheritance, co-curated by Wavelength’s student curatorial interns Lillian Dent and Belle Arp, alongside Raquel Mullins (curator/director).
Inspired by the idea that keepsakes and precious mementos follow us through life—moving from home to home, gathering dust in corners, and finding renewed meaning in each retelling—the exhibition considers the heirloom as both a material object and a vessel of memory. Passed down, displayed, forgotten, or rediscovered, heirlooms form a tangible bridge between past and future.
Selected from an open call, the works in this exhibition explore themes of home, inheritance, and renewal. Artists employ skills and practices passed through generations—quilting, weaving, embroidery, woodworking—alongside works that examine how memory itself gives value to possessions, elevating the everyday object into something cherished. Together, these works breathe new life into neglected materials and forgotten things, conjuring a surprising gathering of new keepsakes and uncanny mementos.
The expanded title, Heirlooms: Strange Logics of Inheritance, reflects the unexpected, sometimes campy, and personal interpretations that surfaced in the submissions. Spanning collage, painting, photography, fiber, woodworking, and mixed media, the exhibition offers a meditation on what we inherit, what we hold onto, and the strange, ineffable logics that bind us to the objects we keep.
Heirlooms: Strange Logics of Inheritance includes works that fall within the broad lens of an heirloom. Including pieces that use skills that have been passed down, such as quilting, weaving, and woodworking–as well as any work that references how memory gives value to possessions. A wide range of mediums, including: collage, quilting, drawing, oil painting, embroidery, sculpture, film, and photography, make up this catalog of new keepsakes and precious mementos. The title expanded to reflect the uncanny and sometimes campy oeuvre of works in the show.
Image: Lea Cawthorne, 88 Stars, 2025, 90” x 70”. Machine pieced cotton dress shirts belonging to my late grandfather, hand quilted with cotton thread
