Before I Die
Candy Chang
Before I Die by Candy Chang | Photo by Yadira Villarreal
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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 it with the prompt, “Before I die I want to ___” as a way 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.
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Each Before I Die 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.
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Candy Chang is a Taiwanese American artist whose work uncovers the psychological layers within communities. Merging the civic and the sacred, her practice reimagines the future of ritual and includes installations, paintings, and videos generated from thousands of handwritten reflections from the public. Testimonies of desire, dread, sorrow, hope, and courage are surfaced in shared spaces that challenge norms of visibility and offer new modes of communion.
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