"Marriage has become a controversial topic, a source of spirited dialogue, in part due to Prop 8 in California, but beyond that it is a topic that is dealt with in 100s of films, books, and now blogs. My past relationship to marriage has been rich and varied via myself and my loved ones, so it is a viable topic to me and from all the references around me every single day, to others as well.
My last name happens to mean ‘partner’ or ‘husband.’ To GET HUBBIED--as in, get partnered up, get a spouse--is a natural and simultaneously personal title for this project.
Marriage is a subject most people have a strong opinion about. Like love and death, marriage is a universal concern. Which is why it can make for potent art. Instead of doing a solo exploration or a group show about the topic in a gallery format, I wanted to expand it to a more interactive, real experience whereby this time-honored ritual becomes the platform for the creative process among the collective of artists and the couple.
Since I began preparing this idea, my ideas about marriage have shifted and expanded. They continue to. But I haven’t altered my conviction in one area: I remain 100% in support of equal rights and opportunities—including legal marriage--for all adults. I feel blessed to be meeting so many people living fulfilled lives of all kinds: Some married, some partnered up and some not."
~ Bettina
"In 'A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy' Woody Allen Says, 'Sex alleviates tension. Marriage causes it.' I've never been married, but thinking about it has caused a fair deal of tension in my life. I come from the ironic circumstance of happily married parents and yet somehow Ive never felt comfortable with the idea of spending the rest of my life with one person. Wanting to have lunch with somebody can be hard enough, but I talk to friends and I field phone calls from a mother who thinks there is something wrong if you don’t have the desire to inhabit the same bed with one person until death do you part. I don't think it is fair to describe the impulse to wed as a fear of being alone and I do think its a natural human impulse to want to be partnered with somebody, but there is a need to question why the expectation for this pairing is for it to manifest itself in a legally binding commitment to one person for the rest of your life.
I eagerly anticipate the culmination of all of this time spent thinking about marriage and to see how each artist involved in the project approaches the topic through their chosen medium. I am certain that everyone privy to GET HUBBIED will have more to pontificate on and hopefully more reasons to celebrate this form of commitment. I am not sure I will have the answer to the conundrum of life-long partnership by the time GET HUBBIED has culminated, but I am sure I'll have a longer list of hypotheses as to why the urge to marry is prevalent."