Belarus Bride (2010)

In 2009 I was working as a conservator restoring the famous Fairy Tree in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens. One of the visitors to the tree was a nun from Belarus. I decided to Google Belarus to find out more about it, and the first lot of pages to come up were all for mail order brides. Women are so desperate to leave the country they will marry a man they don’t even know to escape.

I was also fascinated to find out that Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe.

Hence the bride, with her doll like face and empty eyes. Also, she is wearing a crucifix, as Belarus is a predominantly catholic country.