Soft Pocket
Image: Soft Pocket, digital collage, 2024. Veronica Ceci, Lisa Laratta, and Amy Bench
Amy Bench, Veronica Ceci, and Lisa Laratta
Exhibition Dates: April 12 - May 11, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, April 12 7-10 pm
About
Multidisciplinary artists Amy Bench, Veronica Ceci, and Lisa Laratta converge to present "Soft Pocket," a collaborative tactile installation that protests prevailing pressures to achieve in a capitalist landscape and offers a refuge from the relentless demands of our contemporary digital life.
This immersive experience seeks to redefine and celebrate success, self-worth, and the legacy of resourcefulness by blending hand-printed patterns, projected images, light, painted backdrops, fabrics, and found partially completed creative projects. The trio transforms the gallery into a sanctuary—an antithesis to the plutocratic expectations of productivity.
"Soft Pocket" delves into the artists' personal struggles with a constant need for validation and the toll it takes on individual well-being. It invites viewers to explore the quietude that accompanies inward-facing energy, creating a literal pocket of comfort and care within the gallery walls.
In a marriage of existing materials and fresh techniques, the artists reject the draining, extractive properties of newness. This sustainable approach challenges presumptions that feminine individuals prioritize nurturing others at the expense of their own energy, allowing the too often unseen labour to demand attention. The installation becomes a celebration of the resilience inherent in caregivers’ poise and resourcefulness during lean times.
The artists reflect on the importance of contributing to a legacy of care, focusing on the impact within smaller communities rather than striving for validation on the world stage. They emphasize the significance of the "memory of care," highlighting the lasting impact individuals can have on others' lives. The soft space encourages all to cherish and to be cherished. It is a present to presence.
"Soft Pocket" serves as both metaphor and cushion, providing respite from the contemporary assault of expectation and the fear that any pause in output will jeopardize survival. It is an invitation to challenge the notion that constant production is the sole measure of success, advocating for a more sustainable and compassionate approach to creativity.
Join us at ICOSA Gallery on April 12th to immerse yourself in the transformative world of "Soft Pocket," where art as protest becomes a refuge and a celebration.
About the artists
Amy Bench
Filmmaker and cinematographer Amy Bench is drawn to telling stories of community and resilience, working across documentary, fiction, and animation. Last year at ICOSA, she co-curated the show Dream States, featuring animation artists from Canada to Portugal to Hong Kong and Japan, immersing the viewer in the transformative powers of the animated form. In 2021 she collaborated with Leon Alesi, Lisa Laratta, and Curtis Heath on the ICOSA show Nothing Is.
Amy’s documentary short film Breaking Silence (2023), co-directed with Annie Silverstein, won the Jury Award and Audience Award at SXSW, and Best Short Doc at Atlanta Film Festival. The film won the My Justice Film Award at DOC NYC and is available on PBS. Amy’s previous film, animated doc short More Than I Want to Remember (2022) won an NAACP Image Award and was shortlisted for a 2023 Oscar. The film won Best Short Doc at Hot Docs, Best Animated Short at Tribeca, and is distributed by MTV Documentary Films and available on Paramount+. Cinematography collaborations include Every Body (2023, NBC/Focus Features), Holy Hell (2016, CNN Films), and Mama Bears (2022, Independent Lens), and the 2019 Emmy Award Winning Outstanding Documentary Short, Trans in America: Texas Strong.
Veronica Ceci
Veronica Ceci is a Queer intermedia artist based in Austin, TX. They are known for portraiture, public artworks focusing on forgotten histories and immersive installation works. The artist makes undervalued labor conspicuous through intense materiality, repetition, iconography and lived performance. Ceci’s pieces have been in exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and are held in many collections including the Library of Congress.
Lisa Laratta
Lisa Laratta received her B.F.A. in Toronto, Ontario and her M.F.A. in Theatrical Design from The University of Texas at Austin and has been in Austin ever since. Lisa creates vast, detailed worlds for stage and screen using architecture, furniture, fabric, string, found objects and paint. Lisa is a founder and co-artistic director of paper chairs. Some of the theatre projects she has designed for include Plano, Poor Herman and Baal (paper chairs), Antigonick, Bright Mother and Decapitations (Salvage Vanguard Theatre), Sonnets For An Old Century and UTNT (University of Texas) and Heroic Dose and Stop Hitting Yourself (Rude Mechs), This past year she has designed for 2 shows on Off Broadway: Montag at SoHo Rep and Wolf Play at MCC. In January, The Girl That Became Legend that Lisa designed for Zach Scott Theatre was presented at the Kennedy Center. In February 2021 Lisa was featured as the Window Display artist at ICOSA for the show Nothing Is. She also has been Production Designer on films including jumping off bridges and Lover, Beloved. Lisa teaches set design at the University of Texas.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
