Light the Barricades

Candy Chang and James A. Reeves created a series of three electrified shrines that rewires the rituals of pilgrimage and silent contemplation. Light the Barricades offers a ritual that invites passersby to walk along the border of each lightbox while reading an illustrated fable before sitting for a five-minute reflection with an illuminated hourglass and a pointed question about resentment, judgment, or doubt.

Commissioned by the Annenberg Space for Photography, the lightboxes were located throughout Los Angeles before being displayed as a series in the exhibition Walls: Defend, Divide, and the Divine. Extending into the gallery, Light the Barricades encourages visitors to anonymously share their inner obstructions while considering the experiences of others through a video installation of select responses. By reconfiguring the experience of Chinese landscape scrolls, luminaries, and private devotional images, Light the Barricades offers a modern ritual for these distracting times.