Before I Die

Before I Die is a global participatory public art project that reimagines our relationship with death and with one another in the public realm. Originally created by artist Candy Chang in New Orleans after the death of a loved one, the artwork invites people to reflect and share their personal aspirations in public.

Before I Die reimagines how the walls of our cities can help us grapple with mortality and meaning as a community today. After the death of someone she loved, Chang painted an abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood with chalkboard paint and stenciled the prompt, “Before I die, I want to ___,” to restore perspective and find consolation with her neighbors. Anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on death and life, and share their personal aspirations in public.

By the next day, the wall was entirely filled out, and it kept growing: Before I die, I want to… see my daughter graduate, sing for millions, abandon all insecurities, get my wife back, be someone’s cavalry, tell my mother I love her, make a livable wage, follow my childhood dream, have a student come back and tell me it mattered, hold her one more time, be completely myself. 

Each wall is created by local residents who want to make a space in their community to reflect with one another. Each wall is a unique tribute to living an examined life. And each wall invites us to restore perspective in an age of increasing distractions. A memento mori for the modern age, the installation reimagines our relationship with death and with one another in the public realm. 

We invite you to share your own goals and wishes before you die.

Through the activation of public spaces around the world, Taiwanese-American artist Candy Chang creates rituals that uncover the complexity of our inner lives. Her practice includes participatory installations of anonymous, handwritten reflections, as well as reproductions of these reflections through video and mixed media. She is interested in the future of ritual in public life and the aesthetics of the handwritten word. She is the caretaker of over one million handwritten anxieties, hopes, pains, and moments of grace in the 21st century.

Trained in architecture, design, and urban planning, she originally created participatory art to reflect with neighbors on their neighborhood. After struggling with grief and depression, she used this medium to reflect on their psyches. She has created a monument of over 50,000 anxieties and hopes, transformed a building into a device for philosophical reflection, and created electrified shrines on emotional barriers. She has worked with organizations, including Mural Arts Philadelphia, the Art Production Fund, the Rubin Museum of Art, and the Annenberg Foundation. She often collaborates with James A. Reeves, and their work can be found at Ritual Fields.

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