Flyer by Cindy Hernandez Mathis

On This, Your Baptism was an installation and performance by Cindy Hernandez Mathis. Staged within a parish basement at St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church on the Lower East Side on May 9, 2026, the event investigated the popular material culture of baptismal party kitsch through a communal celebration of our personal feast day, the day of our Baptism.

Engaging with popular memory of visual tropes such as chiffon cakes, lace and party favors, the event staged a conflict between twee, sentimental aesthetics that both uplift and obscure the transfigural, sacramental reality of Baptism. The installation was accompanied by a performance in the spirit of relational aesthetics in which participants were invited to receive a slice of cake. The cake slice was an invitation towards celebration and quiet contemplation of one’s own baptismal identity. 

Photos by Charlie White.