Kate Belton Wrexham, Wales, b. 1972

Kate Belton’s photographs are constructed dioramas that the artist makes out of materials like cardboard and paint and then subsequently photographs. Set like a stage in a large cardboard box, her Interior photo works, consist of otherworldly scenes showing open refrigerators, chairs toppled over, and, in this case, a microwave in the middle of the floor with what looks like a striped coffee mug on its side. The microwave is surrounded by scraps of paper that have been torn and resemble bits of wood paneling or drywall. In each of these photographs, the absence of people is contrasted by the hand-made quality of the materials used to make these scenes. The viewer is at once aware of the artist's hand by the roughly made objects and aware that the narrative for whatever presumed people could have existed in these spaces did not end well. The flung open drawers and disheveled papers suggest that whoever existed in these spaces either had to leave quickly or was violently displaced.