Hasidic Wedding Dress Turns to Artwork After 2 Months in the Dead Sea
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Two months — that’s all it took to transform a 1920’s-style black gown into a shimmering, salt-covered piece of art.
Israeli artist Sigalit Landau submerged a dress — a replica of the traditional Hasidic one worn by the character Leah in the seminal Yiddish play “The Dybbuk” — into the Dead Sea in 2014 and captured its evolution over time in photographs. The sea’s salt-rich waters crystallized the dress, changing it from a “symbol associated with death and madness into the wedding dress it was always intended to be,” in the words of a press release describing an exhibition of her photos.
The images, some of which are shown below, are on display at the Marlborough Contemporary museum in London until Sept. 3.
This is not the first time Landau has left something in the Dead Sea — check out some of her other works .
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
