Confessions: what happens in vegas...

Confessions is a public art project by Candy Chang that invites people to anonymously share their confessions and see the confessions of the people around them in the heart of the Las Vegas strip.

As Art Production Fund Artist-in-Residence at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Candy lived in the The Cosmpolitan for a month and turned its P3 Studio gallery into a contemplative place for people to anonymously share their confessions. Inspired by Shinto shrine prayer walls, Post Secret, and Catholicism, she created a place where people could write and submit their confessions on wooden plaques in the privacy of confession booths. Candy hung the anonymous plaques on the gallery walls each day and painted select responses on large canvases. The space also featured original, contemplative music by Oliver Blank – listen to it here.

By the end of the exhibit, over 1500 confessions were displayed on the walls: I still love her two girlfriends and five years later, Came here married to one girl and left married to two girls, I sold heroin to my friend and it ruined his life, I stole over 15,000 from the company I work for, I like porn more than my husband does, I’m afraid I’ll die young just like my mother, I’m in love with my best friend – too bad he’s married, I feel some days that I’m socially unacceptable, I don’t know what I am doing and I’m running out of time…

Every passerby is another person full of longing, anxiety, fear, confusion, and wonder. We struggle with a lot of the same issues and there is great comfort in knowing you are not alone. Through this project, Candy sought to create a cathartic sanctuary where all of us became the imperfect priests to help console one another as we contemplate our lives.

Candy Chang is an artist who is passionate about public spaces and personal well-being. By combining public art with activism and introspection, she has been recognized for her provocative projects to improve our communities and ourselves. She is a TED Senior Fellow, a Tulane Urban Innovation Fellow, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Learn more here.

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