Melissa Shiff | Events Archive

	February 26, 2008 Melissa Shiff has been invited to lecture about her work at Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington. She will also give a lecture at Temple Beth Hatfiloh. For more information about the lecture please click here
	Fall 2007, No. 14 Pages 30-62 Susan Chevlowe, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Jewish Art and Visual Culture at the Jewish Theological Seminary, writes on the work of Melissa Shiff and Hannah Iverson in Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women Studies and Gender Issues. Click here to read excerpt
	December 23-27, 2007 Melissa Shiff has been invited to present her work at Limmud UK at the University of Warwick in Coventry England. Click here to read more about the conference
	Toronto, December 16th - 18th 2007 Jewish Museums and Displays: New Directions, Obstacles and Opportunities Sunday December 16th, 4:15 - 6:15 pm Reesa Greenberg lectures on ARK in her paper entitled: Displaying Judaica: Secularizing the Sacred Panel Chair: James E. Young Excerpt from Reesa Greenberg's Abstract: "For the most part, museum displays of Judaica utilize the “treasure” mode... I argue that recent artist projects (eg. Larry Abramson’s Searching for the Ideal City, 2006, at the Magnes Museum, San Francisco and Melissa Shiff’s Ark, 2006, at the Jewish Museum in Prague) shift the paradigm and, in so doing, reanimate both the artifacts and the museum. Rather than emphasize a lost or aestheticized past, these temporary artist projects, working with and against the habitual forms of displaying Judaica, offer new ways for viewers to understand and experience Judaica." Engaging Contemporary Art in Jewish Studies: A Scholar's Rountable with Three Contemporary Toronto Artists. Roundtable: Sunday December 16, 2-4pm Organized by Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Professor Jeffrey Shandler . Melissa Shiff will present her work and two scholars will also present on Shiff's projects --Shelley Hornstein and Chava Weissler Chair: Jeffrey Shandler Artists: Melissa Shiff, Rafael Goldchain, and Meyer Kirshenblatt (with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett) Panelists: Jonathan Boyarin, John Efron, Shelley Hornstein, Olga Litvak, Chava Weissler, and Carol Zemel Click here to read roundtable abstract
	Public Viewing of Proposals: January 15, 2008 Melissa Shiff Shortlisted for Fort-York and Original Lake Ontario Shoreline Public Art Competition for the City of Toronto. Other Shortlisted Artist include: Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak Daniel Laskarin and Robert Youds Maha Mustafa Tony Stallard Description of commission: Currently, Toronto Culture is seeking to commission an artwork that delineates the original Lake Ontario shoreline and related features, which can be traced along the north side of Fort York Boulevard. It is expected that the artwork will illuminate the Fort’s original relationship with the lake, and act as a landmark for a new entrance to the city’s most important historic site. Click here to read more about Fort York
	September 29th, 2007 ICONOCLASH: NIGHT of AWE DANCE PARTY Medium: Multimedia Installation Venue: Grange Park When the iconoclastic Moses descends the mountain holding The Ten Commandments to find his people dancing around the golden calf, the party’s over. In contrast to Judaism, Hindus worship the cow as holy. This tension between what religious cultures hold sacred is at the heart of Melissa Shiff’s ICONOCLASH. Shiff projects iconic movie scenes onto Toronto’s temple of art (the AGO façade) and pairs this with a multicultural music mix to create an interactive dance party. Superimposing the audience into these scenes via video technology, ICONOCLASH focuses reflection on the question of visual representation and the function of the icon in different cultures. Click here to read more about Nuit Blanche
	Oakland University Art Gallery- Rochester Michigan March 10- April 15th Opening reception Saturday March 10th 6-8pm TerGloba Website Artists' Panel featuring Hasan Elahi, Melissa Shiff, Alexander C. Mouton, Dmitrey Stakovosky, John Craig Freeman, and Valerie Mendoza on Sunday March 11th 2-4pm Curated by Vagner M. Whitehead Other participating artists: Dread Scott, Susan E. Evans, Vagner M. Whitehead, and others. Melissa Shiff will exhibit her "Crush Oppression Pillow Project" as part of this group show. Press release: "The positive promise of globalization, of all good things shared and accessed by all, has yet to be fully realized - we still live with disease, terrorism, starvation, and inequality and few people control the majority of goods. Articulating an array of personal perspectives, the artists in this exhibition come from a diverse and expansive range of nationalities and ethnicities exploring different facets of globalization in their artistic practice..."
	» www.rejewvenation2005.com October 21st--November 20 Command J: Jewish Laws Digital Arts Group exhibition as part of the ReJewvenation conference. Melissa Shiff will be exhibiting her video installation Gender Cuts/The Jew Under The Knife. Other participating artists are Helene Aylon (New York), Simon Glass (Toronto), and Jeffrey Shaw (Sydney) Opening Reception: October 23rd 3- 7pm at XPACE in Kensington Market, 303 Augusta Ave. Toronto. Thanks to the Toronto Arts Council for supporting this project. October 28-31, 2005 ReJewvenation: The Futures of Jewish Culture, University of Toronto conference. October 29th, 2005 As part of Rejewvenation, Melissa Shiff will be presenting her work at the roundtable discussion "The Futures of Jewish Ritual." The panel will be moderated by renowned scholar Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (NYU) Melissa Shiff's presentation is entitled: Kicking the Habit: Making Rituals for Happening People. The panel will be held at the Wolfond Centre for Jewish Life, University of Toronto, 36 Harbord Street, 3:30- 5pm October 30, 2005 There will be a Visual Arts panel at the ReJewvenation conference in conjunction with the exhibition to be held at The Robert Gill Theatre, 214 College Street, 3rd Floor featuring presentations by Norman Kleeblatt, Carol Zemel, Jessica Wyman and Louis Kaplan, 3-5 pm. Professor Jessica Wyman (OCAD) will be presenting "Cutting Gender, Splicing Ritual: Melissa Shiff's Gender Cuts/The Jew Under the Knife" November 13, 2005 Artist Talks - Toronto Artists Simon Glass ("The Ten Commandments/Prohibited Weapons") and Melissa Shiff ("Gender Cuts/The Jew Under the Knife") discuss their works at XPACE, 303 Augusta, Kensington Market, 3 pm.
	April 8 - May 2, 2005 Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life, at NYU: exhibition featuring: passover projections, elijah lounge, miriam bar, » matzo ball activism May 6-8, 2004 \| The Center for Religion and Media, at NYU: RELIGIOUS WITNESS: THE INTIMATE, THE EVERYDAY, THE WORLD (pdf file)