The Altar'd State

“People engaged in the deconstruction of their faith remove each article of the belief…and submit it to a process of ongoing reflection.” - Alan Jamieson Conservative media, in addressing the rapid drop-off of self-identified Christians currently taking place in the United States, highlights the collapse of societal dependence on religious institutions as attributing to the collapse of social cohesion. Churches, cathedrals, temples, and Sunday School classrooms have served as the bastions of community organization for centuries, fostering great resilience alongside tremendous suffering. When undergoing the process of deconstruction, finding home in these spaces - whether temporarily or permanently - becomes alien. Regular contact with ritual, highlighted throughout human history as essential to the foundations of a good life, transitions from a routine anchor into a slow, insidious fracturing of self. The visual impact of these framing devices, structural forms built from layers of dripped wax that melt together paraphernalia and plastic, draws on a perversion of candle-waste & “spent” material to achieve extended protrusions into space. Each work serves as a miniature communion, dedicated to the complexity of repulsion, rejection, craving, and returning to faith.