Out of Darkness

48 x 24″, from Baptismal series

The act of baptism is both visually, metaphorically, and spiritually violent. It represents the death of the old self through the act of drowning. While baptism is prosletized as a new start to a better life, symbolizing one’s journey into Christianity, for many it has come to symbolize harmful rhetoric. With this series, I am examining what exactly baptism represents socially, the death of one’s individual identity, and how that negatively affects people’s ability to critically think outside their religion.