In Memory Palace, artists Sara Ahli and Will Beattie employ glass, 3D scanning, photography, and archival blueprints to investigate how domestic and architectural systems—boundaries, enclosures, and internal frameworks—shape memory, identity, and belonging. Here, structure is understood not only through an application of materials, but as a temporal device: a system that can hold, distort, or reconfigure how experience is stored, accessed, and recalled. Domestic and architectural forms become mnemonic instruments, producing interior worlds and heightened awareness within the everyday. Familiar domestic objects are translated into transparent materials—those typically used to augment our vision and provide clarity— to reveal how memory is constantly built, perceived, and revised through the lens of the present.

Sara Ahli (b. 1993) is an Emirati and Colombian-American visual artist based between Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Providence, Rhode Island. Working with sculpture and embodied research, Ahli explores the body as a vessel for memory, transformation, and cultural inheritance. Through fashion, glass, and installation, she investigates the thresholds, limitations, and resilience of the human form. Ahli is represented by Aisha AlAbbar Gallery in the UAE. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and the California College of the Arts. Her curatorial practice explores how nontraditional exhibition spaces can foster deeper public engagement, bridging the arts and everyday life.

Will Beattie (b. 1992, Queens, NY) is a sculptor working with glass casting, digital photography, and 3D printing to explore the malleability of images and glass’s historic role as both a scientific and metaphorical apparatus. Beattie received his MFA in Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Sculpture at SUNY Purchase. His work has been exhibited at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Abrons Arts Center, New Bedford Museum of Art, RISD Museum, and Urban Glass. He is based in Providence, Rhode Island, and has participated in workshops and residencies including Vermont Studio Center and Pilchuck Glass School.