L’amour est un oiseau rebelle
Installation in white satin
Madame Bovary, Carmen, Anna Karenina, La dame aux camélias, Manon Lescaut
In Dumas’s play, Marguerite tragically passes away in the arms of her lover, uttering the words, “I have lived for love, and now I am dying of it.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) once expressed that “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.”
This sentiment, however, carries deeper implications. In literary works depicting women who engage in adultery or struggle to lead virtuous lives, the narrative often concludes with their untimely deaths.
Carmen meets her end at the hand of her lover, while Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, both tortured by their circumstances, ultimately choose to end their own lives.
Similarly, Manon Lescaut and the Lady of the Camellias succumb to tuberculosis, reflecting the poignant themes of suffering and sacrifice in their stories.
location | Studio Rijksakademie, Amsterdam |
year | 1989 |
title | L’amour est un oiseau rebelle |
size | 40 m satin x 1m40, height 2m50 |
material | White satin, Ink |

Women in 19th-century novels: Rebellious wives had to die!
If the subject of suicidal wives seems irrelevant to you or just the stuff of classic fiction, then you’re probably not aware of the following fact: more than 20,000 housewives have been killing themselves in India every year since 1997.
Millions of wives are still subjugated around the world. They can neither attain marital life with dignity nor walk away peacefully.