Press Release: Unheard Until Marriage
This new installation piece, in development with the support of the Arts Council of England, explores how Asian women are represented in their relationship to marriage. The work communicates how the marriage traditions of Asian families affect women emotionally. While women are the cornerstone of the family and seen as precious, the degree to which a girl must seek permission to marry and the financial element of the marriage itself casts an uncomfortable sheen over some of that love and protection. It is only once a girl is married that she is able to have some authority for herself, but in becoming a woman, she has to change her home, her family and her name before society can accept her as an adult. Alongside this, though, a marriage is a time of great celebration and love, so that process of emergence is as complex as it is transformative.
It is this fertile territory that Rubbena is exploring with her new installation and the work in progress will be shown at Redlees Studios, where the artist encourages active discussions about the work and the themes contained within it ahead of the exhibition of the completed work at Sprout Community Arts in February 2011.
