“Kith, Kin + Smoke Trails” by Alexa Wheeler
Being part of the AROHO circle means contributing my voice to a larger, evolving archive of women’s creativity, experience, and collective memory. I am drawn to the idea that our individual stories, however different, become part of something greater when brought together.
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Alexa Wheeler Artist Statement:
[This work is] an exploration of ancestral memory, migration, and the often-invisible labor of women and children. Through photographs, textiles, and domestic objects, this installation traces how family histories intersect with larger histories of labor, land, and exploitation, honoring the lives woven into our collective past.
I am an interdisciplinary artist, educator, master printer, and maker whose creative identity is rooted in curiosity, care, and the belief that making is a way of understanding the world. My practice moves between printmaking, textiles, photography, installation, sound, and artist books. My German heritage, inherited family traditions, and experiences as a woman shape my investigations of memory, domestic labor, and belonging. I see creativity not simply as something I do, but as an essential way of being, questioning, remembering, surviving, and imagining what might come next.
Making is how I process experience, preserve memory, and make sense of the things that cannot always be articulated through language. It is both an act of inquiry and a source of comfort. The repetitive processes of printing, stitching, layering, and assembling allow me to slow down, reflect, and connect with the women whose labor and love shaped my life. My work gives physical form to questions about care, identity, inheritance, and belonging. It allows me to honor what came before while imagining what might be different for those who follow.
Women have always been present in my creative life, whether through the inherited knowledge of my grandmother, the work of artists who came before me, or the friendships and collaborations that continue to shape my practice. I am interested in the ways women carry knowledge through objects, gestures, rituals, and acts of making, often without recognizing those contributions as creative work. I imagine a creative community where women exchange ideas, share resources, celebrate one another’s accomplishments, and make room for individual voices without competition or expectation. A place where care is reciprocal and creativity is valued for itself.
