Sigalit Landau

Salt Crystal Bridal Gown 1-8,2014

In the play The Dybbuk, written by S. Ansky in 1913-16, the spirit of Hanan enters the body of his beloved Lea just as she is about to wed Menashe, the bridegroom her father has chosen for her. This dybbuk is exorcised after a dramatic ritual, but to no avail - Lea dies before the planned wedding and instead marries her soulmate, Hanan, on high. The Dybbuk has been performed again and again, in many languages, over the last century; the Hebrew production starring Hanna Rovina was the most famous play performed in the land of Israel by the Habima company, and the white wedding dress worn by Rovina achieved iconic status.

In 2014 Sigalit Landau made a precise life-size replica of this dress in black, similar to the dresses worn by Hasidic women, and immersed it in the Dead Sea. Thus a style of clothing with its roots in the Eastern European shtetl was replanted in the landscape of a Middle Eastern desert sea. The underwater photographs seen here followed the process of crystallization, at the end of which the dress looked white. It is now the right color for a bride - but it has been transfixed, resembling Lot’s wife rather than a wedding gown.