Rebecca Key, “Archetype,” 2010, Transformer, Washington, DC.

Start digging in Rome and you’re bound to hit something a few centuries old. Start digging in Washington and, well, let’s just say you probably won’t discover the foundations of any ancient buildings. But D.C. has its roots, which make an appearance at the Rebecca Key exhibition Archetype at Transformer, on display through October 15.

Key, a Liverpool-based artist, does not have any artifacts on view, but a revival of Transformer’s former life. In a world before Whole Foods, trendy restaurants, and gentrification, the building that is now inhabited by Transformer was not a structure at all; it was an airshaft between two tenement buildings until the late 1970s. To make this discovery, Key researched public records at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library and traced the gallery’s urban footprint as it changed over the years, from the late 19th century to the 1980s, reuniting Transformer with its past and bringing the alley into the gallery.