KEPT preserves handwritten prayers from public spaces—places where people write knowing their words may be seen. With explicit consent, each prayer is preserved exactly as it was written, in the writer's own hand.

Handwriting is evidence: a trace of a specific person at a specific moment, leaving language behind as proof of need. Each mark is unrepeatable—shaky or steady, hurried or careful, crammed into a corner or trailing off the edge. A plea for healing. A confession. A thank you. Praise. Whatever was written, however it was written, nothing is changed. Misspellings stay. Awkward spacing stays.

The original placement on the paper tag is replicated precisely on raw linen at monumental scale. The painting is a faithful record, not an interpretation. The original tag is retained alongside the work.

This is preservation, but it is not the end.

When someone stands before the work and reads the prayer, it reactivates. The viewer is invited into a role—witness, carrier, proxy—holding a stranger's petition for a moment as if it were their own. One person's grief or gratitude or longing passes, briefly, into another person's care.

The work functions as reliquary, record, and assignment. It refuses disappearance. It insists that what was offered in public can be carried forward—by anyone willing to hold it.

The work is not only object. It is exchange.