Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released

Growing up an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn, Helene Aylon spends her Friday nights in a sea of extended family as the Sabbath candles flicker. She dreams of escape but marries a rabbi and becomes a mother of two. Suddenly her world splits apart when she is widowed at thirty. Aylon finds a home in the burgeoning environmental art scene of the 1970s creating transgressive works that explore identity, women's bodies, the environment, disarmament, and the notion of God. Eventually she asks of Judaism what she never dared to ask as a child: Where are the women? Examples of Aylon's work included are her early doors for the Jewish chapel at JFK airport, her peace pillowcases (including one worn by Grace Paley), and her current search for the links between feminism and Judaism.