Saturday, January 31, 2026

‘Ashes And Echoes’ Exhibit Spotlights Eaton Fire Survivor Voices

By EDDIE RIVERA

“Ashes and Echoes,” a multimedia interactive art installation, opens Saturday, Jan 31, 2026 and runs through Tuesday, February 4.

Interactive installation focuses on home, resilience and the long arc of recovery

A new weekend multimedia exhibit at the Pasadena Convention Center invites visitors to step inside the lived experiences of people whose lives were upended by last year’s Eaton Fire, using recorded survivor testimonies as its core.

The interactive installation, “Ashes and Echoes,” is presented by the law firm LA Fire Justice and centers on video-based oral histories paired with immersive visual and audio elements. The Eaton Fire killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 homes across Altadena and Pasadena last January.

Project director Hrag Yedalian said the exhibit is intentionally framed around more than destruction.

“So, this is an exhibit about home,” Yedalian said. “It’s about resilience and it’s about restoration. And the idea behind this exhibit is to take survivor testimonies and to elevate them. So we educate the public about what people are going through, but it’s also future looking.”

Rather than presenting testimonies as static displays, Ashes and Echoes surrounds visitors with voices, imagery and spatial design meant to create an emotional throughline between past loss and future possibility. Yedalian emphasized that the exhibit is meant to encourage visitors to think beyond the immediate aftermath.

“It’s very future-looking,” he said. “We want people to think about the future. We want to think about their lives a year from now, five years from now.”

That forward-facing approach is reflected in messages embedded throughout the installation, many drawn directly from survivors themselves.

“Because of that, we have a lot of messages for hope, people expressing their messages to the people of Altadena, to the people of Pasadena,” Yedalian said. “And the main message is, this is home. Don’t leave it. Don’t give up.”

Organizers describe the exhibit as both a public education project and a community-centered space for reflection, emphasizing continuity, belonging and the long process of rebuilding.

“Ashes and Echoes” is open to the public this weekend, through Tuesday, February 4 at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green Street, Pasadena. Admission is free.