GOING
PUBLIC WITH SIN
Topics: Bondage; Confession; Culture; Depravity; Guilt; Human Condition; Regret; Shame; Sin; Vices
References: 2 Chronicles 7:14; Ezra 10:1–16; Proverbs 28:13; Matthew 7:6; James 5:16; 1 John 1:9
In 2006, two performing artists named Laura Barnett and Sandra Spannan created an exhibit in a storefront in Manhattan that allowed passersby to alleviate their guilt.
The two women dressed as nineteenth-century washerwomen and sat in the storefront. One underlined the words on the glass—“Air your dirty laundry. 100 percent confidential. Anonymous. Free.” Onlookers were encouraged to write their deepest secrets on pieces of paper. The washerwomen then collected the confessions and displayed them in the window for all to see.
The sins and secrets ranged from slightly humorous to sordid:
• “The hermit crab was still alive when I threw it down the trash shoot [sic].”
• “I want to see SUVs explode. Those people are so selfish.”
• “My girlfriend and I both think Osama Bin Laden has a sweet-looking face.”
• “I make fun of this one friend behind her back all the time. She just enrages me! But I get freaked out when I think of what she might say about me. I worry this means we’re not really friends. Human relationships are infinitely confusing!”
• “I haven’t slept with my husband in a year, and I am about to start an affair with _____ _____.”
• “I haven’t yet visited my dead parents’ grave.”
• “I am dating a married man and getting financial compensation in exchange for the guilt. I’m twenty-five, and he’s a millionaire. It pays to be young.”
• “New York makes me feel lonely.”
Barnett said the onlookers are often overwhelmed by the weight of others’ sins: “We go there, and the window is empty, and we’re wearing all white. At the end, the window is full. It’s exhausting. Some of those things are really, really sad. And afterward I need to take a bath.”
—Kathryn Shattuck, “Artists Display Confessions of Passersby on a 44th Street Storefront,” The New York Times (May 6, 2006)