Untitled @ Yocheved Weinfeld. 1976

- WEINFELD Yocheved, Untitled, 1976. Photo: Micha Bar-Am, b/w photo of a performance, Dawel Gallery, Jerusalem.

Yocheved Weinfeld’s actions in the performance Untitled (1976), were based on the ritual purification ceremony dictated to brides by Jewish law. Weinfeld created a disturbing and somber ritual, in which humiliating actions are performed upon the body of a passive woman. These actions were accompanied by a reading of texts from Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, a classic compendium of Jewish law – concerning mourning rituals, modesty and the impure status of women during menstruation. Weinfeld related these laws concerning the body and sexuality of women to death and mourning – an affinity that underscores the symbolic death of women within a demeaning cultural construction.

Born in Poland, 1947, lives and works in NYC.