The fabric of a marriage
An upcoming exhibition of textile and mixed media installations by Sarah Portelli, known in the art world under the moniker is-Sinjurina, attempts to address the cultural conditions spurring contemporary relationships. Lara Zammit speaks to the artist about her exhibition. The upcoming art project Byronic Heroin seeks to explore the lifespan of a contemporary relationship through the use of textiles, poetry and mixed media. With items reminiscent of weddings and relationships sprawled across the walls of a traditional Maltese terran in Qormi, the temporal make-up of relationships and the socio-cultural baggage argued to be conditioning us in the direction of marriage is on full display. Artist Sarah Portelli, is-Sinjurina, spoke to Times of Malta about how the exhibition seeks to comment on the cultural aspiration towards marriage and its ramifications in the world of dating. “The exhibition seeks to question the relevance of these traditional, oftentimes heteronormative rituals,” said Portelli. “When growing up, we are oftentimes taught to exalt the over-romanticised aspects of the traditional relationship, with things such as wedding ceremonies afforded an almost...