Nobody’s Home – Katie Wilde

Nobody’s Home – Katie Wilde

Nobody’s Home – Katie Wilde

Nobody’s Home depicts scenes set in a range of desolate environments, seductively apocalyptic landscapes and waterscapes where the deep sea, outer space, and floodzones merge. These surreal tableaux are populated by vacant, unfinished suburban dwellings and alien aquatic creatures. Human presence is notably absent, and the spectre of humanity is indicated only by the signs and signatures of supposed civilization.

The imagery comes from cell phone photography of real-world constructed environments (residential developments and aquarium displays) rearranged and overlaid to form imaginary tableaux, many of which appear to be in the midst of some kind of action or aftermath, while others quietly teem with potential energy.

I began the photography that preceded these paintings during my final months living in southern Ontario in 2018. My neighbourhood of ticky-tacky tract housing was one of several modern developments that carved off and surrounded a 150-year-old, recently retired farm. The march of time and a certain kind of progress had formed a hundred-acre agricultural island, now floating fallow in an ever-expanding sea of suburban sprawl. One day, the “For Sale” sign was replaced with a from Terra View Homes billboard advertising  “Guelph’s First Net Zero-Ready Neighbourhood!” That winter, I began documenting the transformation, continuing on return visits in 2021 and 2023.

This series was developed during an era of my life which saw several significant shifts including my move to Lethbridge, followed quickly by the Covid pandemic. My existing fascination with nature, society, and possible ends to the anthropocene era under late-stage capitalism were only heightened by my experiences in isolation on the prairies. Aquarium imagery entered the equation around the time travel restrictions were lifted, as themes that were driving another painting series I was working on converged with emerging undercurrents of Nobody’s Home. Jellyfish entered as a vessel for the ‘alien’, a layered and loaded term evoking both curiosity and fear of the unknown.

Nobody’s Home explores concepts of land and home, possession versus belonging, and of relationships between nature and itself. Implied narratives offer an opportunity to contemplate how living creatures – including humans – experience timescales and relate to their own pasts, presents, and futures.

Katie Wilde is a Lethbridge-based visual artist with an affinity for nature, oddness, and interactivity. She holds a BFA from the University of Ottawa, and her work has been installed in a variety of contexts, from galleries to alternative private and public spaces including a biochemistry lab, a crosswalk, and across the surfaces of a town square.

Date:September 5th, 2026  -  October 23rd, 2026

Location:Casa - Main Gallery

Add to Calendar