Nowadays, you can 3D print with many materials, including salt. For example, there is the ‘3D printed house 1.0’ by Emerging Objects, or the Salt Project by Eric Geboers. For people without a 3D printer, or people who do not feel like designing something on the computer, artist Sigalit Ladau comes with a new idea: submerging a base structure in the Dead Sea, so that over the course of time, it is covered in a layer of salt. She used this method to create the salt dress.
You probably know images of people floating on the water of the Dead Sea. This is possible because the sea has a salinity level of 34.2%, which is about ten times as high as typical ocean water.
For her project, Landau submerged a dress for two months, so that the garment was slowly covered in a layer of salt. The salt dress, which was black at first, is a replica of the costume worn by the character Leah in a canonical Yiddish play, called The Dybbuk. This story tells of a young bride who is possessed by an evil spirit. Thanks to the salt layer, the dress turns from black to white, looking like a wedding dress, resembling the bride Leah should have been.
The salt dress is not the only thing that Ladau submerged into the salty water of the Dead Sea. Amongst other things, she did the same with a violin, a dreamcatcher, shoes, and a noose.
Photos via core77.com