CELIA DE VILLIERS - Bridal Fetish
While researching this work Celia questioned some female friends about the meaning the attach to white cloth. They came up with answers like wedding dress, bloodstain, coffin, table linen, virgin angel, nun, snow queen, trousseau, baptism, diaper, superstition, bandage, underwear, lovemaking, birth, death, advertising and detergents.
In this sculpture Celia refers to female history being interwoven with the baggage associated with white linen.
The artist questions the fact that collecting, weaving, embroidering, quilting and the laundering of white linen has been employed over the ages to teach girls patience, humility, duty and chastity. She also finds it objectionable that a well-stocked ‘Hope Chest’ was/is supposed to supplement a girl’s charm in the search for a ‘suitable’ husband.
