Light the Barricades: Reflections from an Exhausted Age by Candy Chang and James A. Reeves is the culmination of Light the Barricades, a public installation that spanned four sites across Los Angeles. These electrified shrines served as spaces for contemplating the psychological barriers in our lives and garnered over 3,000 handwritten reflections from visitors.
This limited-edition book collects hundreds of these responses, ranging from personal reflections to broader political and psychosocial statements that create a contemporary American portrait. It also includes the fables that appeared on the installations, an introduction to the ancient I Ching, meditations on emotional barriers, and the artists’ notes on the role of ritual in public life. Each book is signed by the artists and comes with a one-of-a-kind Chinese ink study by Candy Chang that developed into the artwork for the installation.
386 pages. 342 illustrations. 8.75 x 5.75 x 1.5 inches. Pearl linen cloth hardcover. 100 lb satin interior. Numbered edition of 250. Signed by the artists. Ink study: 7.5 x 5.5 inches, ink on watercolor paper, signed by the artist. Available at Ritual Fields.
