Veil
I went to Bulgaria in 2018 and, crossing the country by bus, was surprised to enter a region with village mosques and Muslim country women in long dresses working in the fields. I later learned that these were a Bulgarian minority people – the ‘Pomaks’. Some of these images come from their elaborate wedding preparations.
Whilst on one level, the story that’s forming in these paintings is of the transaction that is marriage, on a deeper level I am thinking about the veil and its meanings. I am struck by the way a veil separates the wearer from the world around, makes them unseen (and unheard). In another way, the wearer is turned inwards and can be attending to an interior world.
EM 2025