Sigalit Landau

Born in Jerusalem, 1969
Lives and works in Tel Aviv

"Why did she look back?" asks Sigalit Landau in reference to Lot's Wife. "Was she curious, rebellious, suicidal?"
Landau presents the bodice of a large bride's dress sewn out of crinoline netting. The netting, which was immersed in the salt pools in the southern part of the Dead Sea, is filled with crystals. "The rest of the dress," she says, "can only be imagined. For the time being, let us say that it 'sunk to the bottom'..."
In recent years, a significant part of Landau's oeuvre has been related to the Dead Sea. The different objects she immerses in salt water, as well as the large watermelon spiral she filmed there, are all somehow related to the enigmatic and tragic figure of Lot's wife - the woman who did not obey, and who is identified more than anyone else with the Dead Sea and with the catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah.


Lot's Wife

The Bible devotes no more than a single verse to Lot's wife: "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:26). Although even her name is not mentioned, Lot's wife has become a symbol, a myth, a warning sign. The story is well known, and its symbolism is highly succinct: there once were two flourishing cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, whose inhabitants sinned against God. Their sins are not detailed, so that one may attribute to them every possible horror. A bitter punishment was visited upon them: "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." Lot is the only just man in Sodom, and he too is a symbol. God chooses to save him and sends him angels, who urge him and his family to flee the city before it is destroyed. They are instructed not to look back, but Lot's wife looks, freezes, and becomes a pillar of salt.