“Tikkun Olam”: Helène Aylon’s ecofeminist ritual art
Helène Aylon (1931–2020) established herself in the 1980s as a prominent ecofeminist artist by developing large-scale participatory ritual artworks. The feminist and the activist aspects of her work have been acknowledged and discussed extensively, but its religious aspects have been overlooked. Ayl...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Aesthetics & Culture |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20004214.2024.2327660 |
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| Summary: | Helène Aylon (1931–2020) established herself in the 1980s as a prominent ecofeminist artist by developing large-scale participatory ritual artworks. The feminist and the activist aspects of her work have been acknowledged and discussed extensively, but its religious aspects have been overlooked. Aylon’s Jewish heritage, while not explicitly addressed in these works, was implicitly present in them in multiple ways. This article reveals and spells out the Jewish religious subtexts of her 1980s ecofeminist works, and highlights the connections between her Jewish identity and her ecofeminist, activist, and ritual participatory art. It argues that her work can be seen as an act that transforms gestures and values from the Jewish ritual world of her upbringing into new rituals within the world of contemporary activist art. In theorizing Aylon’s art as inspired by her Jewish world, and in particular by its dominant idea of tikkun olam (repairing the world), the article demonstrates the way in which she introduced an innovative discussion into the American art world—one that connects art, ritual, and activism—and in this way restored to the arts the sacredness it lost in modern times. This new prism for exploring Aylon’s 1980s ritual artworks and their reception, and the mapping of Jewishness as another stream of practice in ecofeminism’s headwaters, sheds new light on this part of the history of art, illuminating the close ties between contemporary art, feminism, theology, and religious rituals. |
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| ISSN: | 2000-4214 |