Aqua Regalia or ‘royal water’ is the alchemical name for a highly corrosive mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid that transmogrifies, dissolves and changes the most powerful substance – gold.

In Aqua Regalia, FAITH XLVII explores the dichotomy between the sacred and the mundane by enveloping viewers in a space with figurative paintings, as well as intricacies from everyday life in shrine-like artworks.

FAITH XLVII’s fascination with abandoned spaces has led her to discover buildings across the world that are saturated with layers of histories and memories. She’s sifted through the material residue of the former residents in search of personal relics and sentimental treasures, which form the building blocks of the shrine installations. Once-cherished objects, imbued with emotional value by the strangers that used to own them, are aligned with the monumental in this reconstruction process. Treating these discarded remnants in this way allows for a reinterpretation of the mundane as valuable, and everyday, personal narratives as sacred. Ultimately, creating these shrines beg to question one’s invested value in objects and the inherent symbolism of the items that surround our lives.

Chapter One ran from 9-19 October 2014 at Moniker Projects in London. Chapter Two ran from 19 November-19 December 2015 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York. Chapter Three was set in an expansive and desolate five-story apartment block in central Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The explorative video is one of the first videos for FAITH XLVII to co-direct, alongside filmmaker Dane Dodds.