Candy Chang's latest project, Confessions, is taking the mantra “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” to a whole new level. As the artist in residence at The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas this past summer, the TED Senior Fellow transformed the hotel's gallery space into a living, breathing confessional—inviting guests to write their deepest and darkest secrets on tags and hang them on display. A recent article on the project provided some great photos of people's heartfelt confessions. Inspired by “Shinto prayer walls and the Post Secret blog,” the project revealed a “breadth of subject matter [that] people felt compelled to get off their chests, from 'I eat too much cheese' to 'I don’t know what I am doing and I’m running out of time…'” Beautiful yet starkly honest, the project explores Chang's fascination with using public spaces to create meaningul connections between people, even through anonymous messages.
Candy Chang may be best known for her Before I Die project, which used similar methods to explore a similar theme. Called “one of the most creative community projects ever,” by The Atlantic, Before I Die invites members of a community to write down one thing they've always wanted to do. In her talks, Chang speaks about the intersection of art, design, and urban planning to help create moving projects that help bring people together, and explore the human condition.
Photo courtesy of Candy Chang
