Xiao Lu
Wedlock 1, 2009
Photograph
Original Sizes Available:
115 x 168 cm
115 x 168 cm
Xiao Lu emerged from a locked black coffin wearing a wedding dress, then participated in a ceremony in which she married herself. She placed rings on both hands, occupying the...
Xiao Lu emerged from a locked black coffin wearing a wedding dress, then participated in a ceremony in which she married herself. She placed rings on both hands, occupying the positions conventionally assigned to bride and groom. Funeral music changed to wedding music, joining images of death and renewal.
Marking the twentieth anniversary of China/Avant-Garde work Dialogue. The work appropriates the familiar wedding ritual while removing its expected male partner. It can be read as an assertion that a woman’s life need not gain legitimacy through marriage to a man. Yet the coffin and her expressed desire to wear a wedding dress prevent it from becoming a simple celebration of independence: longing, loss and self-affirmation coexist.
Marking the twentieth anniversary of China/Avant-Garde work Dialogue. The work appropriates the familiar wedding ritual while removing its expected male partner. It can be read as an assertion that a woman’s life need not gain legitimacy through marriage to a man. Yet the coffin and her expressed desire to wear a wedding dress prevent it from becoming a simple celebration of independence: longing, loss and self-affirmation coexist.
