Erin Hayde

  1. Recent Work
  2. Experiments
  3. Papier Mache
  4. Printmaking/Works on Paper
  5. Fiber Work

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01 → Recent Work



Corpor(e)al Punishment: The Guilty Party





Hairshirt I_ 20-200 years (2023)
20x48x5”
Used clothing, price tag fasteners






Hairshirt II_ 20-200 years (2024)
16x14x5“
Used clothing, price tag fasteners





Hairshirt III_20-200 years (2024)
10x14x5“
Used clothing, price tag fasteners





Whip I_1,000 years (2024)
21x5x2.5”
Plastic bottle, plastic cutlery, plastic bags, plastic bread clips, glue 






Whip II_50 to 1 million years (2024)
18x3x2”
Television remote, wired earbuds, electrical tape, glue






Whip III_450 years (2024)
10x2x2“
Plastic bottle, dental floss, plastic line, plastic and metal razor blade replacements




Cilice I_10-500 years (2024)
3.5x6x7”
Metal bottlecaps, plastic and metal twist ties





Cilice II_80-100 years (2024)
2.5x4x 5.5”
Metal bottlecaps, plastic and metal twist ties






Cilice III_200 years (2024)
4x4x3”
Plastic produce mesh, plastic straws, glue




The Guilty Party photo series (2024-ongoing)
Digital prints
Photo paper, ink




Kneeler_50 years (2024)
3x17.5x6”
Wood box, acrylic, velvet, plastic shreds



Corpor(e)al Punishment: The Guilty Party report (2024-ongoing)
12x9”
Folder, paper, ink



“Corpor(e)al Punishment: The Guilty Party” includes ten sculptural objects, photographs, and an ongoing research report. The project explores the strategic individualization of guilt for systemic problems, specifically plastic pollution and its relation to wider ecological collapse under the capitalist mode of production. I illuminate the shadowy forces behind the process through which we punish ourselves over our physical and human needs of food, clothing, play, etc., and through this self-flagellation absolve and prevent ourselves from engaging in collective action towards meaningful change.

The series includes clothing (hairshirts), whips, cuffs (cilices), and kneeler, mostly made of trash harvested from the local environment; plastic features prominently along with more ‘natural’ materials like cotton and aluminum. The objects are modeled after Catholic religious instruments of ‘discipline’ or self-flagellation; their forms hint at the co-optation of religious historical inheritances by secular capitalist forces. The hairshirts were made by gun-tagging over 100,000 price tag fasteners to three sets of used undergarments, while the whips and cilices are assemblages of common and recognizable household trash: food waste, e-waste, and personal hygeine waste (plastic cutlery, straws, bottles and bags, headphones, TV remote, razor replacements, and floss.) All objects look (and, in fact, art) uncomfortable, even painful, to wear and interact with. 

“The Guilty Party” is a series of photographs that reveals the marks on skin made from interacting with the objects, usually for various time intervals of 15 minutes. In the latest iteration of the project at 133 W 21st St, the photographs are shown together in a corner of the room which has been transformed into a ‘dressing room’-cum-confessional, subtly inviting the audience to try on the objects for themselves. A small kneeler tray shares the confessional space and contains the plastic shreds created during the recycling process. The photo series is arranged at kneeling height, encouraging the viewer again to take part in ritual self-flagellation and absolution.

The project also includes an ongoing research report of the same name, comprised of text and data visualizations represented in a professional folder. The report discusses the origins of guilt and related religious frameworks continues secularly under capitalism as well as the direct corporate influecne on the individualization of guilt and responsibility felt for system problems of capitalism. The report also begins to outline a theory and process whereby guilt is exchanged for objects (i.e., ‘green products’) and absolution is reached through consumption. 

The report, and project itself, is an extension of my professional work on economic climate policy for large IGOs on topics related to deforestation, sustainable agriculture, transport and energy policy, etc., where meaningful action is thwarted and solutions address only symptoms. Private industry has continually engaged in well-funded poltical and marketing campaigns that explicitly prevent us from reaching collective liberation from capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, and reinforce the atomized individualization pushed on us by the very logic of capitalism.