Fairytale for Sale

Natasha Caruana 2011

UK wedding customs and the fantasy, performance and trophies of the ‘big day’ are explored in a series of iconic wedding photographs. In each, new couples or brides display traditional garb and time-worn wedding poses. But the brides have obscured their own faces: heads are chopped off, and faces are covered in black pen, digital cut-outs or smiley faces. Posing as a bride-to-be, Natasha contacted brides to discover their motivations for resale. These are reflected in a ‘text cloud’ alongside the images. The work raises questions about transactional elements of the marriage contract and the props of the big day. It also marks a point in time when sharing personal data online was less comfortable.

Materials

Giclée print photographs with vinyl text piece

Exhibition

Data Anthropologies: Natasha Caruana Love is an Act
17 July - 16 December 2015 at the Open Data Institute

Data Types

Anecdata, Anonymised, Closed, Personal, Retrieved, Shared

About the Artist

Natasha Caruana (b.1983) is a photographic artist whose work is characterised by bold and inventive uses of performative strategies, sharply tuned interpersonal skills and scientific processes. She is concerned with narratives of love, betrayal and fantasy,…
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