Stabat Mater Dolorosa

Stabat Mater Dolorosa takes its title from the medieval hymn mourning passive suffering as sacred virtue. A mechanized scourge constructed from apple wood and metal chain repeatedly strikes against the wall, translating lamentation into automated impact.

What once signified embodied grief, witness, and penitence is displaced into a system that performs suffering without subject or intention. The whip no longer atones; it operates. Each strike produces visible traces of damage while remaining detached from responsibility, catharsis, or release.

Oscillating between devotional ritual, disciplinary technology, and eroticized violence, the work stages pain as continuous circulation rather than transformative event. Repetition persists after meaning, producing an atmosphere of exhaustion in which affect, punishment, and performance become increasingly indistinguishable.