NYMPHAS DISSOLUTIO

(The Bride Revisited) has been an ongoing process, which successfully marries both form and content. It is a deconstruction of something, which has been lost, and an acknowledgement of that which is broken. From far away, the work appears as circles and flowers forming a fantastic garden, but upon closer inspection, they are revealed to be mandalas: ancient Buddhist and Hindu circular symbols. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung referred to them as “representations of the self.” These mandalas take form as a blooming construction, similar to the unfolding petals of a flower, and are configured entirely of repeated fragmented images of failed brides.  This project began when Mercedes Gertz visited a recently divorced friend -- she had referred to her old wedding photographs as “the most beautiful pieces of trash”. This began a 17-year odyssey where Gertz began collecting her now divorced friends and acquaintances discarded bridal portraits.

First generation mandalas from 2012 – 2016 in collaboration with artist, Nancy Louise Jones

Second generation mandalas from 2017 – 2021 in collaboration with SPARC and Echo Theohar.