Mallorie Wright

Boarded Up
watercolor on paper
22 x 30 in.

Living in a space changes it, as does leaving it. To me, this is both melancholic and beautiful.

Memories, like buildings, are human constructs. Seemingly permanent and lasting, they are often left to chip and fade. My current work involves images of abandoned places and spaces. Some are ominous in their dramatically weathered state, and others are more recently vacant, carrying personal memories that protect them from mental abandonment. My imagery finds a balance between the manicured purposefulness of the architectural and the entropy found in structures lost to time.

Themes of decay, memory, and obsolescence permeate throughout this body of work. Studying the progression of decay allows for a unique perspective shift. The process these buildings go through is not unlike the deterioration of an individual’s mind. These places are far more interesting to me than a place that has never seen distress or adversity, and every location is individual in how it reacts to both internal and external forces over time. I see beauty in the complexity of development, the shift to neglect, and, ultimately, decay.

© Mallorie Wright