From a daily shower to a rain dance, to foot washing before prayer, to ceremonial baptisms, or just drinking your 8 cups a day, water and washing have major significance in many religious and daily rituals.

This piece draws on an ancient Christian tradition of a “spiritual washing” that represents rebirth into a new spiritual life, family, and the gift of faith in God. This performance and subsequent installation reference a Biblical passage that says when someone is baptized, they are “buried with [Jesus] in baptism, and raised with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

Normally a baptismal rite would take a matter of moments to perform, but these images create a “continuous moment of vulnerability.” The photographs document someone floating in the water, suspended from time and ever-present in a moment of cleansing rapture. The white clothing billows up around the body as if referencing a sort of out-of-body spiritual experience. This liminal moment described in the photograph feels both safely swaddled as well as threatened by the surrounding sand. It's a reflection on the spiritual process of change and healing as requiring ongoing submission, loss, and acceptance to move into new spiritual life.