Becca Panos
Blankets over the barbed wire (2022)
Yarn, wood, barbed wire
60” x 48” x 4”
Blankets over the barbed wire is a mixed media piece that features a crocheted blanket draped over a trellis wrapped in barbed wire. The piece features a statement that is embedded into the blanket, leaving ambiguity for the viewer to project unto.
Becca Panos (she/her)
Rebecca Panos is a current student pursuing a BFA at New York University. Panos is an artist born and raised just outside of Chicago, IL and is currently living and working in New York City. Panos is an interdisciplinary artist who works primarily with textiles, ceramics, language, text, and photography. Her work moves between public and private spaces while exploring concepts of memory, interpersonal relationships, and translation. Panos’s work explores self-reflection as well as interpersonal and intimate relationships. She finds that focusing on these themes creates work that is accessible and relatable while also allowing the examination of isolating universal experiences.
Artist Statement
I am an artist born and raised just outside of Chicago, IL, currently living and working in New York City. I work across disciplines, in media including textiles, ceramics, language, text, and photography. My work moves between public and private spaces while exploring concepts of memory, interpersonal and intimate relationships, self-reflection, and translation. I find that focusing on these themes creates work that is accessible and relatable while also allowing the examination of isolating universal experiences.
I focus on materials and mediums that are historically tied to domesticity or archival work. Weaving, sewing, and crocheting all serve practical purposes as well as artistic ones. The hand is very present in the process of my work. This presence is further emphasized by the traditionally intended use of my creations. The sweaters are meant to be seen, but not worn. In this sense, they are contradictions to themselves. Although many of these mediums and modes could be presented as aging domestic skills, my work aims to capture the experience of younger generations.
We live alongside one another,
making impressions in others’ lives
With these forms, I create work that reflects people in all lights. My pieces contain my own memories and personal relationships embedded into their material essence. Relationships–both my own and those of others–are what inspire and inform my practice. Our interactions with others: the stories they tell and how they make us feel–whether good or bad–inform the perception we have of ourselves and serve as a lens for how we view the world. Language has become a vital component of my practice. I strive to present this by recounting my own experiences and creating a visual narrative that others can relate to or project onto. The work isn’t always contingent on portraying my own experiences, but rather portraying real-life situations and relations that the average viewer can relate to and currently exist within.
I aim to make all of the moments that go into shaping an individual’s life–from the largest to the smallest– tangible, as all can be equally impactful.