What happens when you submerge a black dress in the depths of the Dead Sea? A lot, it turns out.
In her eight-part "Salt Bride" photography series, now on view at Marlborough Contemporary in London, Israeli artist Sigalit Landau documents the incredible transformation, as more and more salt crystals adhere to the fabric over the course of three months in 2014.
"It looks like snow, like sugar, like death's embrace," Landau said of the salt deposits in a statement.
The dress is a replica of a traditional garment worn by the protagonist in "The Dybbuk," a traditional Yiddish play about a bride possessed by -- and later exorcised of -- a demonic spirit. Symbolically, Landau transforms the garment from a mourning dress to gown of celebration.
Landau also created "Small Salt Bride" -- a bridesmaid dress -- as a separate sculpture.
Return to the Sea
"Salt Bride" isn't the first time Landau has drawn inspiration from the Dead Sea. Her 2005"DeadSee" video, for example, saw her floating naked in its waters with 500 watermelons.
"Over the years, I learnt more and more about this low and strange place," the artist said. "It is like meeting with a different time system, a different logic, another planet."
![](https://looppacificassets.s3.amazonaws.com/09salt_gown2.jpg "Studio Landau lifting "Small Salt Bride" from the waters of the Dead Sea")