“Winter and Wedlock Tames All” by Sarah Beecham
Title:
Winter and Wedlock Tames All
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Artist Statement:
This piece of work was initiated by the reading of E.P. Thompson’s ‘Whigs and Hunters’. In the early C18th laws were passed that vastly increased the number of crimes punishable by hanging. It became the fashion for people to wear wedding clothes to go to their deaths. Their crimes were often petty but all were infringements of the newly acquired ‘landowners’ rights’ and indicate the rising importance and awareness of property and materialism. The second important theme is the strong analogy between marriage and death so often found in the popular oral tradition.
