Terror of a Woman’s Impurity

ByGabrielle Broome

“In this video I envison myself as the feminine demon. It is interesting for me to imagine myself as the demonic being the woman becomes through menstruation. In Jewish talmudic laws, ritual impurity barred women from studying like men. As someone who studies torah, and tries to learn, I had this reaction to create this piece.”

Gabrielle Broome (born New York, 2000) is an artist currently a senior getting her BFA at USC Roski with a minor in religion. She likes to experiment creatively in many different art forms including video, ceramics, poetry, dance, etc. Her passion projects include meditation movements, painting emotions and her spiritual truth as well as playwriting about a girl trying to become a golem, and making Hebrew letter earrings. Gabrielle’s work often poetically recaptures conceptions of human brokenness, femininity, and Berieshit origin myth, and their intersections with ritual.