on tying the knot

Wendy Stefansson. Back Story. Salt, string, vintage wedding dress. 2007.

Back Story is one of a series of works in which I have used salt as a medium. My process involved days of boiling up salt solutions in huge black canning pots, and letting it crystallize onto short strings. The strings were then tied together into long strands, and sewn to the waist of a wedding dress like a train. The quiet, repetitive action of tying the knots that linked these fragments together into a larger whole was at once meditative and metaphorical, speaking of the nature of marriage – not just “tying the knot” once, but continuing to tie it on a daily basis, over and over, remaking that connection against all the odds. That connection that is at once as fragile and ephemeral as salt and string; and yet strong enough to join two lives.

Wendy Stefansson. Back Story (detail).

To see my earlier salt works, see my post entitled "return" -- http://inno-particular-order.blogspot.ca/2014/01/return.html.

For more thoughts on the nature of marriage, see this post.