ELISE
GOLDSTEIN

Performance Duration: 6 months; 6 hours; 158 days

Hosted by the Bond Chapel

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The Act:

• The artist sent 2000 letters to priests offering an anonymous opportunity to unburden themselves of a story heard during confession

• Received 158 letters of repeated confessions

• Burned each letter to ash

• Compressed the ash into beads

• Shipped the beads to a mussel farm for insertion

• Waited

• Removed the pearl-covered ash from the mussels

• Drilled the pearls for stringing

• Pearls were strung by the public during a live performance, and then worn by artist for 158 consecutive days, during which she was in constant contemplation that every word, every breath, all food and drink all traveled through the circle of pearls around her neck.

In this interactive installation, viewers were invited to make confessions to live birds through a glass speaking-funnel. This species of bird is particularly attracted by the vibration of the human voice, and thus instinctively moves to the perching bar directly in front of the funnel to "listen". 

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An audio track playing the sound of bird calls imitated not through vocalization but merely through rhythmic breathing accompanied the space to prevent any possibility of other gallery-goers over-hearing individual confessions.

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This piece asks if a witness or confessor must understand, in a rational sense, in order for the transmission to feel truly received and for the one confessing to feel unburdened.

This series of scanned objects document interactions at 10 catholic churches wherein the lighting of a candle is observed as a vehicle of prayer. The prayer is spoken, the candle is lit, and it is thought at least symbolically that the smoke ascends towards the heavens carrying with it the prayer towards God. 

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ACTION: The artist enters the church, sits in a pew and waits for a parishioner to light a candle in prayer. Once they rise from the kneeler the artist gently approaches and asks them about the nature of their prayer. After they leave, the melted wax of the prayer candle is emptied onto an acrylic disc and archived. 4 prayers are collected from each church visit, and only from visitors willing to divulge their exchange. The archive contains 40 circular 'slides'. 

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KEY - from upper left to lower right:

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• a wife asks for permission to leave her husband

• a student asks for clarity of purpose

• a man asks for courage to face his death

• a mother asks for a viable kidney for her son's transplant surgery

Performance Duration:

15 x 1-hour performances over 5 weeks

Hosted by Sullivan Galleries

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During performances hours, the viewer is instructed: “Hold your hand over the wsihing well’s center. When your palm has collected, only then continue behind the curtain.” The lantern above the well contains an IV bag of dripping wine, which collects in the hand of the viewer. Once seated behind the curtain, the artist pulls the viewer's hand through the small opening, washes the wine from the hand with a linen cloth and massages the hand carefully with oil. These cloths are collected outside of the performance room as an archive of prayer-wishes. 

These vials contain correspondences between the artist and 167 registered sex-offenders, including 32 hair samples. 1,000 letters were sent to registered sex offenders (addresses found via internet, many of whom were still incarcerated) offering an opportunity to expressed unresolved issues surrounding the event of their registration. If the offender felt remorse, they were asked to include a cutting of their own hair as a symbolic gesture. Letters were collected over 4 months in a PO Box then sealed and hung from a tree in collaboration with a women’s shelter.