Kei Ito is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is centered around utilizing the conceptual framework of photography to visualize the invisible. Mainly employing camera-less photographic techniques, performance, and artifacts, Ito creates large-scale installations that excavate hidden histories. As a third-generation atomic bomb victim living in the US, Ito employs his generational history as a series of case studies that often applies the language of monuments and memorials, initiating a journey of healing and growth while inviting audiences to explore nuanced social issues and honor the memories of those lost to both historical and contemporary tragedies.

Ito’s multimedia installation, A Dream of Armageddon, draws its title and conceptual prompt from H.G. Wells’ 1901 novella and reflects on our contemporary proximity to apocalyptic threats—from nuclear proliferation to political complacency. Within the exhibition, model homes from Eastern and Western architectural styles appear suspended in darkness, intermittently illuminated by interwoven light bulbs. Stripped of their original context, these homes become symbolic sites of memory, fragility, and collective vulnerability.

Created through Ito’s breath-based cameraless photographic technique—exposing light-sensitive paper to sunlight for the length of an exhalation—the works evoke both personal memory and global trauma. The process recalls a moment from Ito’s childhood, when his grandfather, a Hiroshima survivor, described the bombing as “hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.” In honoring this memory, Ito’s work visualizes the invisible forces of radiation, grief, and survival.

A Dream of Armageddon challenges viewers to consider the cost of inaction and the urgent need to preserve peace in an age of rising authoritarianism and fading memory. It is both a warning and a call to collective accountability—reminding us that the future remains unwritten, and still within our power to shape.