Confessions

Confessions is a participatory installation that explores public rituals for catharsis and consolation. Informed by Japanese Shinto shrine prayer walls and the practices of Catholicism, Chang invited passersby to write a confession on a wooden plaque in the privacy of confession booths. The plaques were then hung on the gallery walls. The original exhibit in The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas collected over 1,500 confessions and included an original soundtrack by Oliver Blank. The installation has since grown to over 20,000 confessions in other cities, including London, England; Athens, Greece; Yerevan, Armenia; San Diego, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Minsk, Belarus. Reappropriating religious rites for secular environments, the work examines the relationship between public space and emotional communion.

Responses ranged from the light-hearted to the profound: I still love her two girlfriends and five years later — It’s hard for me to accept my father. I feel guilty for that — Everyone thinks I quit smoking, but I didn't — I hate that all my friends are having children and turning into boring people — I sold heroin to my friend and it ruined his life — my social media is so fake — I love cats and hate my sister — Sometimes I worry that I'm the problem — I knew my marriage would end in divorce before I was married — I like it when my friends are mediocre so I can be the best — I'm a feminist but sometimes I wish I could have been a trophy wife — I'm in the military and I'm scared to die — I don't believe in an afterlife anymore, but I wish that I did.