
Confessional

Confessional
2025
Wood, Acrylic tile, Pieces of a shower, Curtain, Vinyl
The act of confession is a profoundly personal, intimate sacramental process, where the soul and person are cleansed. It is a ritualistic practice in which a penitent confesses their sins to a priest and, in return, receives total absolution. It seems absurd how humans and the person make their own private rituals that exist in a cycle similar to the myth of Sisyphus, we start and end our day by cleaning ourselves, wake up then do it again; we clean knowing that our cleanse is never permanent–we will need to clean ourselves again yet we form our own habits, rituals, and specific ways we operate in daily routines. The act of cleaning within a confessional and that of cleaning within a bathroom paralleled each other. Showers themselves are a private, intimate ritual where we draw a curtain between ourselves and the outside world; what happens in the shower remains in the shower, much like what happens within a confessional, which remains confidential. In constructing the sculpture Confessional, I worked to create a space that served as a place of ritualistic meditation, stretching a kneeler with vinyl, replacing shampoo with Catechumen Oil —a holy oil used for anointing and healing —and shaping it to reflect the traditional Catholic confessional. Creating an absurd object that appears as a tool to clean the person as a shower physically, but exists as a holy, spiritual cleaner in a confessional.


