Carly Slade constructs buildings skewed by two-point perspective to tell universal stories about the way architecture communicates our hopes and lived experiences. In this exhibition, Slade has created three buildings from her former neighborhood in Philadelphia. Driving by these buildings on her way to and from her studio, she observed not only the buildings’ day-to-day changes, but also the residue of their deeper history: new signs, new paint jobs, a once-beautiful lintel in disrepair. Each of these buildings embodies what Slade grew to love and admire about Philadelphia—a sense of hope, dedication, and a “make it work” mentality.

Having worked in construction for ten years, Slade is highly attuned to the craftsmanship of a building’s construction and is accustomed to the way many men in that field made clear that they didn’t think she belonged there. She is skeptical of the way spaces and skills are gendered. By combining skills that have been identified in the past as being exclusively “women’s” or “men’s” work, like cross-stitch or electrical wiring, to create her finished buildings, Slade calls out a host of false dichotomies.