CONFESSIO. Artist's book. 2013.
A contemporary retelling of St. Patrick’s Confessio, written in the early 5th century. Patrick’s Confessio is both a defense of his life’s work and a declaration of his deep faith. It tells the story of his teenaged capture and enslavement by Irish chieftains, the growth of his profound relationship to the Christian God while suffering as a shepherd slave, and his escape and subsequent calling to return to the land of his captivity as a missionary and minister.
Using text from Padraig MacCarthy’s translation of St. Patrick's writing, my Confessio investigates the relevance of this religious text today. I interweave a visual narrative of my own encounter with calling during my first experience of Ireland, with recitations of Patrick’s text in the original Latin, and its Irish and English translations. Word is engaged both as the Word (of God), and as human utterance. What does it look and feel like to hear the Word not only through God’s utterance – sacred text – but also in every action, encounter, object, and being? How does one respond to the imperatives asserted? And where and how does one access the authority of one’s own voice?
View book pages sequentially below.
Exhibition history:
2013 The Uncanny Pioneer Valley: Performance Art for the Camera. Parsons Hall Project Space, Holyoke, MA