© Matanya TausigA new piece of artwork by Sigalit Landau shows what happens when objects are submerged in the salty waters of the Dead Sea. The sparkly salt sculpture shown here was originally a black dress that was submerged in the Dead Sea for two months. Images of the project are on exhibit at the Marlobrough Contemporary until Sept. 3, 2016.
A gorgeous new exhibit reveals just how salty the Dead Sea is.
Artist
Sigalit Landau submerged a 1920s-style long black dress in Israel's Dead Sea for two months in 2014.
When the dress was lifted from the salty waters, it was a sparkling, crystalline sculpture formed from salt. The images capturing this chemical transformation are now on exhibit at the Marlborough Contemporary museum in London, England, until Sept. 3. [
See Images of the Salt Crystal Wedding Dress]
Landau has been inspired by the Dead Sea's unique environment for past artwork, including salt crystal-encrusted lamps, a salty hangman's noose and a crystalline island made of shoes, according to her website.
The current exhibit uses a dress that is a replica of the long, black one worn by a character in the classic Hasidic Jewish ghost-story called "The Dybbuk." In that story, the bride, Leah, is possessed by the evil spirit of her dead suitor, who died before they could marry. The dress was worn during the 1920s production of the play.
"Over the years, I learnt more and more about this low and strange place. Still the magic is there waiting for us: new experiments, ideas and understandings. It is like meeting with a different time system, a different logic, another planet. It looks like snow, like sugar, like death's embrace; solid tears, like a white surrender to fire and water combined," Landau said in a statement.
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