Linda Alterwitz

[1][2][3] Her practice includes photographic and collaged works, immersive installations and participatory methods, and employs alternative imaging devices ranging from low-tech plastic cameras to advanced medical diagnostic machines.

[9][17] Writers suggest that her multi-layered work addresses various physical and psychological dichotomies: external and internal, individual and universal, microcosm and macrocosm, the visible and hidden, comfort and discomfort.

[7][5][4][28] Lilley Museum director Stephanie Gibson wrote, "Alterwitz's images ask us to contemplate this inevitable finitude, reminding us that our bodies are imperfect vessels.

[8][17] The series and its title reference the literal—and claustrophobic—stillness required for MRI scans and explore contrasts during such testing between physical confinement and mental wandering, and the refuge of the familiar versus the fear of the unknown.

[30][6][7] The emphasis on breath led Alterwitz to diagnostic processes capturing other internal rhythms of the body in the series "Once Ocean" (2015–17), "Envisioning the Veil" (2017–19) and "Self Without Interpretation" (2019–21).

[28][31][25] The latter two projects used visual data derived from electroencephalogram (EEG) scans made during distress or the contemplation of love and loss, which she printed on surgical gauze, evoking both pain and healing.

[9][31][24] Much of this work was presented in the exhibition "Sanctuary" (Hilliard Art Museum, 2021) as an experiential installation that included simulated wind and a musical score and explored themes of refuge, conflict, healing and trauma.

[5][3][32] The subjects appear as surreal, black-and-white figures mottled with dark blotches indicating heat and inflammation that Rosie Hillier wrote, "unlock a previously unseen view of the physiological effects of the COVID-19 vaccine on the human body.