Niddah 2012

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In Hebrew, Niddah means a menstruating woman, literally "one who is excluded."

According to Jewish law, a man is forbidden to maintain sexual relations with his wife during and after her menses since anything she touches is impure and can cause impurity to others.  Marital intimacy may resume only after the wife has undergone mikva.

 

In this project, the concepts betray a negativity that is inherent in the Talmudic view of women’s cycles (written in 2 AD) as well as an ambivalence to the bodily process from my own female perspective. Specifically, I focused on the male gaze of menstruants, as well as the female experience of menstruation. 

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In creating a set of beautiful visuals for a life event that holds universal understanding, I hope to open the topic of Niddah as a conduit for esthetic artistic expression.