Reclamation is an autobiographical mixed-media installation set as a domestic scene reflecting the artist’s narrative emerging from her divorce. 

In dialogue with the Women’s Art Week theme of RECLAMATION, the work takes from her artist ex-husband—literally and figuratively—transforming what was once his into a site of her own agency. Viteri discovered a piece of reclaimed wood, once his and now abandoned like the family itself, and utilized techniques learned from her husband, remaking it into a table using found objects, also abandoned. 

In the walls of the home, we find the dishes reclaimed from Viteri’s previous solo exhibit Speed Kills, now in a different context, including her marriage and divorce front and center of the narrative. Each plate is autobiographical, depicting moments from her history, while simultaneously decorating the home, turning darkness into beauty and bringing lightness, joy, and irreverence into the domestic space. 

Three stools crafted by her husband sit empty, symbolizing each family member left behind, now reclaimed by Viteri.  At the head of the table is an antique birthing chair that belonged to Viteri’s grandmother, and folded laundry-like on top of on it, actual work garments from the ex-husband, still stained with remnants of his woodworking, and now sprinkled with clay dust from her work, evoking rebirth and integration.

There is also clay sprinkled over the installation, evoking her newfound freedom in her own creativity and how her practice is starting to cover old wounds. There is violence, but much like her healing, it is still hopeful.

The dark wood and black walls stand in stark contrast to the lightness and joy of the ceramic work, indicating hope and new beginnings. The installation asks: what happens when material, memory and self, encounter one another after time has passed?