Two of the images featured in this post refer to the projects of artist Sigalit Landau, currently showcased at the Venice Art Biennale in the Israeli Pavilion. The latter includes films, installations and objects by Landau revolving around three main themes that fascinate the artist, water, soil and salt, elements that hint at existence and survival and at the consequent interdependence of human beings.
Landau also tackles another vitally important theme in her work, her relationship with the lowest place on earth, the salt-saturated Dead Sea. Salt is a very important element in the entire project: it deposits on an object or penetrates a wound, crystallising things and metaphorically and symbolically crystallising also the fears and hopes of people living in uncertain times.
One of her films shows salt crystal shoes on a frozen lake in Gdansk and there is also an installation of a net-like material covered in salt that accompanies a video of a meeting concerning the building of a salt bridge to connect the Jordanian and Israeli sides of the Dead Sea.
Crystals are usually employed in fashion to create striking decorations: we have seen for example crystal-like formations on some of the designs from Yiqing Yin’s Autumn/Winter 2011-12 Haute Couture collection. Often crystals seem to break out of the fabric of a design rather than attacking the surface of a material like the salt in Landau's works. Why not try to experiment a little bit by growing your own salt crystals for fun and create formations for print or decorative purposes (P.S. don't forget some food colouring agent for more original effects)?
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