"In Memoriam", by Katina Bitsicas
Hatch Admin
In Memoriam, Immersive video installation, wool, silk flowers, jute ribbon, 2023.
February 3 - 25, 2024
Hatch Art - 3456 Evaline St, Hamtramck, MI 48212
Gallery Hours:
Thursdays & Fridays, 6pm - 9pm
Sundays & Saturdays, noon - 5pm
On June 15, 2020, my father, a Detroit native, passed away at the age of 65. In Memoriam celebrates the life of my father by creating the funeral he couldn’t have due to COVID-19. A live performance was staged in 2022 in Thessaloniki, Greece in a 12th century Byzantine Bath house, with three felted wool shrouds, placed on the ground, one for each member of my family. Felted wool is a biodegradable material commonly used for natural burials that becomes a natural rich compost for tree pod burials. A skeletal structure formed within each shroud as I placed the flowers on the wool. I tied red jute ribbons around the historic pillars, inspired by the painted ribbons on the tombs of the historical Greek burial sites. The red threads signify a connection to the dead, and back to the earth, and a link to my Greek heritage. The accumulation of many ribbons overtime, indicates a long history of devotion at a single grave. A projection mapped video of my father’s ashes being spread in the Aegean Sea, his final resting place, surrounds the space. For this exhibition, I present an immersive projection-mapped installation utilizing artifacts from this original performance, such as the wool shrouds, flowers, and red jute ribbons. These elements come together to create a continuation of the memorial for my father, and a space for contemplation for the viewer on their own mortality.
Katina Bitsicas grew up in Michigan but currently resides in Missouri.