In the summer of 2023, I had the extraordinary opportunity to create Wanderings and Traces, a solo exhibition that wove itself through the city of Cambridge, Ontario. Running from June 23 to September 10, 2023, this multi-venue exhibition spanned three distinct locations—Queen’s Square Gallery in Galt, Cambridge Public Library in Hespeler, and Preston—creating a visual thread that connected Cambridge’s diverse communities.
What made Wanderings and Traces particularly exciting for me was the chance to work across multiple spaces, each with its own distinct character and architecture. Curated by Karly Boileau, the exhibition was designed to bring art beyond traditional gallery walls and into community hubs where people already gather—places where they feel safe and a sense of belonging.
As Karly explained, “McCavour’s work encourages mindfulness and slow-looking. Installed at multiple locations, it creates a visual tie between each of our city’s neighbourhoods.” This vision of creating connections—both physical and conceptual—between Cambridge communities became central to the exhibition’s identity.
The main installation at Queen’s Square Gallery featured two significant bodies of work. Pink Field Blue Fog (2016 – ongoing) is an evolving piece that I’ve continued to develop over the years, exploring atmospheric colour and the illusion of depth through suspended thread. Alongside it, Sample Wall (2007 – 2023) presented a comprehensive view of my practice spanning sixteen years—a collection of embroidered samples, experiments, and studies that reveal the technical and conceptual evolution of my work.
In the lobby of Cambridge Public Library at Queen’s Square, Bloom (2022) greeted visitors with an installation based on spirograph drawings and radial patterns that hover and move above.
The installations at Hespeler and Preston extended the exhibition’s reach into additional Cambridge neighbourhoods, ensuring that residents across the city could encounter the work without necessarily visiting a traditional gallery space. This distributed approach reinforced the exhibition’s commitment to accessibility and community engagement.
My work in Wanderings and Traces drew inspiration from memory, environment, colour, and line. By manipulating thread and wire, I created large-scale sculptural drawings that exist unbound from two-dimensional surfaces. Many pieces were suspended and moved subtly with air currents, encouraging visitors to walk through, around, and underneath them—to view the work from multiple angles and become active participants in the installation.
There’s something magical about work that responds to the viewer’s presence. In a moment of mutual symbiosis, visitors complete the drawing I’ve started. Their movement, their breath, their presence in the space becomes part of the artwork itself.
From botanical motifs to spirographic patterns inspired by drawing toys, the exhibition offered what I hoped would be a playful refuge from the rigours of everyday life—a dreamlike and immersive experience filled with line, colour, and texture.
The opening reception on June 23 at Queen’s Square Gallery was a wonderful opportunity to connect with the Cambridge community. We toured the Queen’s Square installations, shared photos of the Hespeler and Preston works, and I demonstrated some of the techniques behind the pieces. Meeting visitors and hearing their responses to the work across different locations was incredibly rewarding.
Wanderings and Traces reinforced my belief that art belongs everywhere—not just in galleries, but in the spaces where we live our daily lives. By spanning three locations across Cambridge, the exhibition created a journey of discovery, inviting residents to seek out work in familiar places and perhaps see their city with fresh eyes.
The title Wanderings and Traces speaks to both the physical wandering required to see the full exhibition and the traces we leave behind—the marks we make, the memories we create, the connections we forge. I’m grateful to Cambridge Art Galleries, Idea Exchange, curator Karly Boileau, and The Musagetes Fund held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation for supporting this vision and helping bring art into the heart of Cambridge communities.
Find out more information on the Cambridge Galleries website.
Wanderings and Traces
Cambridge Art Galleries and Idea Exchange
Galt, Hespeler, and Preston
June 23 – September 10, 2023
Curated by Karly Boileau
