‘The Veil’: Space for a Wedding Ceremony

This spatial art installation was designed for a wedding ceremony that took place in an art gallery in Chicago. It was designed and fabricated in collaboration with the bride. A field of fishing lines were suspended from the ceiling at every inch, with fishing weights at the ends.
The veil of a bride, present in many cultures, was interpreted to become a translucent, ethereal space through which the friends and family could walk, hence directly participating in the ceremony as they ‘lift the veil’ together. The Veil also hosted the receiving line where the guests congratulated the newly wedded couple.

The bride’s Iranian heritage presented the opportunity to inter- pret a culturally specific wedding tradition, namely the ‘sofreh’. Sofreh is a ceremonial table arrangement containing symbollic objects that represent qualities wished upon the couple’s life of marriage. For instance, painted eggs bring fertility, honey and sugar bring sweetness, gold coins bring prosperity..etc. The so- freh, in this wedding, marked the end of a procession through the Veil where the objects were displayed by suspending in mid air.