PSYCHOCARE reenacts the violence and tenderness of em and ac:bc being ill together in 2024. Structured in three acts, the performance is guided by red, purple, and brown projections. The projections combine material explorations of the objects and substances present in the performance with close studies of ill bodies. The projections are overlaid with audio reenacting conversations exchanged while ill. PSYCHOCARE transforms viewers into participants: illness hosts guide them into black rain ponchos and offer shot glasses of coconut electrolyte drink they sip while viewing the performance. Coconut incense fills the air. Bags of charcoal mixed with electrolyte hang from an IV rack. Eight clay hands full of hair reach toward desired salvation. A clay coffin, also filled with hair, waits—layered first with expansion foam, then plastic sheeting, then staged for the body of the ill. Through movement, projection, and various materials, PSYCHOCARE dwells in the intensities of mutual caregiving: the reciprocal undoing of boundaries between selves.

ac:bc and em irvin. PSYCHOCARE. 2024-present. Performance with projected videos.

Still images excerpted from various performance documentation, including The Arts & Humanities 2025 Graduate Exhibition at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, Davis, California, June 5–22, 2025. Photos of this exhibition are owned by the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. Illness hosts of this exhibition: Elyx Desloover and Robyn Gorequeen. Other documentation photos are by Armin Kianfar, Manuel Maravilla, Kayla Tran, and Elijah Lo.