Bride,

1984

Like many of her peers, Charlesworth was a conceptual artist who privileged concept as much as form in her work. This photograph belongs to her extensive four-part color series Objects of Desire (1983–88), in which she explores the idea of metonymy—how fragments of words or images can stand for the whole. As the artist remarked, "Blond hair, a red chiffon scarf, an S&M harness; these are not, after all, the ‘desired’ objects themselves. But insofar as these sensational presences denote absence. . . the elusiveness of gratification, they come to figure for desire itself." Charlesworth often used images taken from magazines. Here, with a brideless bridal gown she alludes to the expectations and constraints that inform contemporary women’s lives, suggesting feelings of desire and oppression in a single image.