IT’S DIVORCE BEFORE I SAY I DO

IT’S DIVORCE BEFORE I SAY I DO begins with a contradiction we know intimately: the desire to be loved, coupled with the instinct to protect ourselves from what love might eventually cost.

A heart-shaped balloon has been covered in spikes. It remains delicate and inviting, yet any attempt to come closer risks pain. The art piece asks whether our defenses simply protect intimacy or gradually make intimacy harder to reach.

The title intensifies that tension by placing the possibility of separation before the promise of commitment. Before the words “I do” can even be spoken, the ending has already been imagined. It speaks to the calculations many of us carry into relationships: how much to reveal, how much to withhold, when to trust, and how much of ourselves we are willing to risk without knowing what will be returned.

Part of the OBSESSIONS collection, the work considers why we are so often drawn to what resists us. Some things become more compelling once they stop behaving as expected. Perhaps uncertainty makes us look longer, desire harder, and hold on more tightly. Or perhaps what fascinates us most is precisely what we can never completely understand, possess, or make safe.