HEIRLOOMS documents David Evan McDowell’s family as they prepare for and observe the memorial of Jesus’s death—an annual ritual central to the faith tradition in which he was raised. Created at a pivotal moment when the artist was questioning his relationship to the only religious practice he had ever known, the work investigates the complex inheritance of faith, family structures, and prescribed identity while holding two truths simultaneously: deep appreciation for the structure, beauty, and traditions the faith provided, and the tension of departing from beliefs that once defined him. Rather than critique or reject, McDowell chose to celebrate. Using careful, considered portraiture and documentary photography, he captured his family in moments of preparation and devotion—dressing for the memorial, gathering together, and participating in rituals that carry profound meaning.

These are images made with love, documenting people and practices the artist holds dear even as his own spiritual path diverges from theirs. Woven throughout this family documentation are concealed self-portraits—the artist simultaneously present and hidden, observing but obscured. These strategically obscured images render McDowell both witness and subject, functioning as metaphor for the dual consciousness the work embodies: to be simultaneously within and apart from, to love what you’re leaving, to honor what you question. 

Created as part of the group exhibition Homeboyz in Innerspace at TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image (December 2025–March 2026), HEIRLOOMS employs McDowell’s characteristic use of visual contrast to mirror emotional and intellectual tension. The biblical titles that accompany each image locate the work within the textual tradition itself, using the language of inherited faith not to interrogate from outside but to speak from the complicated position of insider-becoming-outsider.