One woman’s written reflections on her personal journey with cancer have been transformed into an evocative multimedia installation at SITE 57 gallery in association with Bikini Edit. Stemming from notes written by artist Yuri Angela Chung, Notes To A Friend has expanded beyond itself, seeking to connect people who have been affected by cancer in one way or another and support the often makeshift communities that arise from a very concrete reality.
The multimedia installation will be up and running from October 4-31, with an opening reception on Saturday evening, October 7.
A collaboration with actress Embeth Davidtz, architect Jacqueline Park and creative technology studio Space Craft, Notes To A Friend: The Experience allows one to engage with the themes embedded in Chung’s notes in an immersive new way. Originally posted on Instagram, Chung’s notes are translated into large letterpressed prints. Blind debossed, the notes are pressed into the paper absent of ink, offering a transitory legibility through the relief of the impressions. Within the space, an audio recording of Chung’s notes being read by Davidtz plays on loop. Sound enables sight as Davidtz’s voice reading a note cues the note’s unique projection mapping to its presence in the space, the words filling with a form of dynamic “ink” that illuminates the note and allows them to be read as they are heard.
Sound becomes light and light becomes the conductor of space, guiding people through an experience that is at once intimate and collective, elevating awareness about a journey that is intensely personal and often solitary.
Chung’s journey already has a following. She was first diagnosed with cancer at the age of 25, battled it seemingly into remission only to have a recurrence at the age of 30. Her original Notes To A friend were well received on Instagram. To reach and positively impact others, she sought to bring her Notes to a bigger multimedia stage, launching a successful fundraising campaign and enlisting the support of Bikini Edit, among others.
In conjunction with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, related events will also take place within the SITE 57 space. Showing concurrently are photographs from the Last Cut Project, a multimedia documentary project created by artist Samantha Paige, a young adult cancer survivor and BRCA1 previvor, with images by photographer Lisa Field. All proceeds from the show will benefit Young Survival Coalition (YSC), an organization dedicated to the critical issues unique to young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer.
