Melissa Shiff, Gender Cuts/The Jew Under The Knife (2005)

Melissa Shiff works in video, performance, and installation and at the intersection of art and activism. Shiff reinvents and reformats Jewish rituals and analyzes Jewish culture making links to contemporary social problems with the aim of bringing social justice back to Judaism. Her multi-media Passover Installation The Medium is the Matzo (2005) was recently shown at the Art Gallery of The Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University . Her other work has included Times Square Seder: Featuring the Matzoh Ball Soup Kitchen (2002), a multi-media art activist event for the homeless. Her video sculpture Elijah Chair is in the permanent collection of the Jewish Museum in New York and it was featured in a special exhibition in 2004. Her real life multi-media reinvention of the Jewish wedding was made into a short film entitled Avant-Garde Jewish Wedding (2004) and has shown at Jewish film festivals around the world as well as being featured at the conference “Religious Witness” at New York University.

Shiff was selected to be the keynote artist by the Jewish Museum in Prague which will feature three of her works for their Centennial Celebration in 2006, The Year of Jewish Culture. - www.jewishmuseum.cz

Melissa Shiff is a panelist on the The Futures of Jewish Ritual roundtable at the Wolfond Centre on Saturday October 29th at 3:30 pm at ReJewvenation. Her presentation is entitled “Kicking the Habit: Making Rituals for Happening People.”

Email: mshiff@sympatico.ca
Website: http://www.melissashiff.com

With the generous support of...