For the last 10 years Australian artist Jodi Rose has traveled the world recording the vibrations in bridge cables with contact microphones and using them to create experimental music. You could say she has an almost intimate relationship with bridges, and recently she decided to make it official by marrying a mysterious bridge in the south of France.
Le Pont du Diable (Devil’s Bridge) is a 600-year-old stone bridge built over a steep-sided gorge in Hérault, but for Jodi Rose it’s simply “The One”. After visiting dozens of bridges all over the world, for her Singing Bridges musical project, she decided this was the one she wanted to celebrate her love for bridges with. Although he is made of stone, the resonance of his being is very present, and I feel at peace in his strong embrace,”Jodi said. ”He makes me feel connected to the earth and draws me to rest from my endless nomadic wanderings. He is fixed, stable, rooted to the ground, while I am nomadic, transient, ever on the road. He gives me a safe haven, brings me back to ground myself, and then lets me go again to follow my own path, without trying to keep me tied down or in thrall to his needs or desires. I am devoted to him. The perfect husband… strong and silent!”
For her unique wedding, Jodi Rose wore a wedding dress, carried a bouquet, and even prepared a short vow for her beloved. A dozen people attended the event, including the mayor of Saint-Jean-de-Fos, a small nearby town. Just to e clear, this wedding was only symbolic, a statement of her love and dedication to bridges. “While I respect those whose romantic and sexual feelings are oriented towards objects, mine is a symbolic affair, a pagan / animist view of the spiritual vibration in everything. He understands that I love other bridges – and men – ours is a love that embraces the vagaries of life, as materialized in the swirling currents of the river that flows beneath his magnificent body,” Rose wrote in an article on Bridgeland.
“The Devil’s Bridge is everything I could desire in a husband – sturdy, trustworthy, sensual, kind & handsome,” the Australian musician says about her new husband. “There is longevity in the arch of his back, he has stood for 600 years and he will stand for 600 more. This is not a decision I undertake lightly, just as our curves complement, we truly bring joy to each other, and the strength of his pylons will always carry me home.”