In Echoes artists Katina Bitsicas and Becky Alley combine video projection, AR rotoscopes, and audio elements with utilitarian materials of crisis and survival. Handmade quilts crafted from tarps and emergency thermal blankets, anchored by sandbags, serve as a gesture of protection and comfort while simultaneously conjuring notions of disaster and imminent loss.  Projected onto the pieced-together surfaces are a series of animated cancerous MRI scans paired with the swirling playfulness of liquid light experiments. The quilts, however, are transparent, permeating a barrier of safety, confronting the viewer both with a structure reminiscent of youthful play and imagery of medical diagnosis, information that is typically obscured during childhood. Throughout the space the viewer initiates AR memories with sounds of laughter and joy, which gradually overlap with undulating swells of hospital noise.

This work is about how loss shapes us, both the grief already endured and the inevitable loss yet to come. It is an exploration of the transitions from childhood to adulthood, both what is anticipated and what is revealed to us along the way.

Echoes, 2022, Multimedia Installation (tarps, thermal emergency blankets, video, sandbags, bed sheets, paracord, AR, audio), 20’x 18′ x 12′