Melissa Shiff

MELISSA SHIFf (1967-2025)

A retrospective exhibition will be announced.

JAMS

JAMS utilizes the motion graphics software program After Effects to make animated video Mandalas out of the Jewish Museum New York's Judaica collection and selected names of the Hebrew God. It transforms these objects and Hebrew letters into mystical abstractions. JAMS was created for the exhibition Off the Wall whereby the audience could interact with the artists who were in the gallery performing their art practice. Below are in situ images.

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Installation shots of JAMS from Off the Wall: Artists at Work at the Jewish Museum, New York (click on image to enlarge)

Evelyn Tauben, who curated JAMS in her exhibition Spin Off: Contemporary Art Circling the Mandala, says this of Shiff's project:
“New media and popular culture are often cited as leading factors degrading long held customs and even basic human connection. However, Melissa Shiff integrates hallmarks of popular media -- video animation, dance music -- to generate the JAMS: Jewish Animated Mandala Series where Jewish ritual objects and the sinuous shapes of Hebrew letters morph into mystical abstractions. The JAMS evolved out of an earlier project considering the widely disparate devotional imagery found in Judaism and Hinduism, which produced the first incarnation of the video."

In this project, Shiff utilizes the Mandala -- which is the sacred meditation device in Eastern religions, particularly Tibetan Buddhism -- for a Jewish artistic practice. These JAMS can be viewed as a device or "spiritual technology" to access the divine through meditating on animated ritual objects. The traditional Mandala form in Tibetan Buddhism is usually a 4 quadrant one, but my hybrid Jewish Mandalas utilize 6 points, thus referencing the Magen David form in addition to their use of Judaica. However, there are also specifically Jewish sources of inspiration for my project -- specifically, the art of the Mizrach, an aesthetic device used to direct prayer and contemplation.

Meanwhile, this project crosses these traditional spiritual pursuits with more secular ecstatic pursuits — i.e. contemporary rave culture and psychedelic culture. These JAMS can be appreciated on the level of art and aesthetic experience as purely beautiful forms that transform Jewish ritual objects into animated abstractions.

JAM 5, which is posted at the top of this page, is the last in the series. The series is for sale in a limited edition.

Exhibitions

Off the Wall: Artists at Work

Jewish Museum New York, New York, NY

March 16 - March 27, 2008

Curator: Andrew Ingall

Exhibition Website

Spin Off: Contemporary Art Circling the Mandala

Koffler Centre for the Arts, Toronto, ON

September 22 - December 4, 2011

Curator: Evelyn Tauben

Exhibition Website