See art by Mayra Alpízar | Carlota Berard | Jennifer Boe | Roz Bonnet | Luiza Brown | Nikoline Calcaterra | Judy Chicago | Selin Cileli | Maldoror Capvt Corvi | Maribel Cruz | Thomasin Durgin | Natalie Aniela Dybisz | Elvira | Anne Encephalon | Hélène Epaud | Quiara Z. Escobar | Fanni Fazekas | Pat Fish | Julie Gaw | Gina | Kat Grandy | Martina Hoffmann (1 & 2) | Jelena | Judy Jones | Margaret Kalms | Brina Katz | Lorraine Lamothe | Ria Lee | Sharon Lee | Lana Leitch | Carol Nathan Levin | Katy Luxion | Sarah McCutcheon | Isa Menzies | Megan Morris | M. Parfitt | Petra Paul | Ana Elena Pena | Melina Piroso | Elentye Paulauskas-Poelker | Leigh Radtke | Jacquelyn Rixon | Isa Sanz | Vladislav Shabalin | Nelson Soucasaux | Paula Speakman | Alexandra Steiner | Melina Szapiro | Von Taylor | Jean Tracy | Joseph Tonna | Jessica Wagner | Jennifer Weigel | Terry Wunderlich | Tamara Wyndham | New Guinea menstrual hut carving
Art of Menopause by Coni Minneci
Ancient Peruvian menstrual art
If you create or own art concerning menstruation or menopause and are interested in showing it on thesepages (it's free!), contact MUM
Marie Claire magazine (Italian edition) featured several of the above artists in an article about this museum and menstruation in 2003. The newspaper Corriere della Sera (Io Donna magazine) (Milan, Italy) and the magazine Dishy (Turkey) showed some of the artists in 2005 in articles about this museum.
HOMEPAGE

Cartoon strip: "A Visit to the Museum of Menstruation"

CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Founder/director biography |
Gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux |
Humor |
Huts |
Links |
Masturbation |
Media coverage of MUM |
Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
Miscellaneous |
Museum future |
Norwegian menstruation exhibit |
Odor |
Olor |
Pad directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

 
  Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health
  Former museum


 See photos of artist Olivia Inwood's Igloo installation.

Artist Olivia Inwood writes,

Hi Mr Finley, I am an emerging Australian artist and would like to submit my artwork 'Menstrual Igloo' for inclusion on your website. I discovered MUM when I was researching art based on menstruation and your collection inspired me when I was in the process of creating this particular work, for a university art project on abject art. I have attached an artist statement and images of my work to this email.

Kind regards,

Olivia Inwood

Artist Statement:

Olivia Inwood
Menstrual Igloo (2015)
1.8m x 2.0m x 1.15m tent covered in 400 menstrual pads; fake blood
made from cocoa powder, red food dye and golden syrup

This installation work explores menstruation as a form of abject art
through direct confrontation with the detritus of periods – menstrual
pads. Blood-smeared menstrual pads that would be usually thrown away,
instead create a form of shelter that is immediately visible to the
viewer. From the interior, the work continues to focus on the remnants
of periods, with another pile of discarded menstrual pads and blood
smeared on the white bed sheets and pillow. This intimate space
resembles the privacy of a bedroom, which the viewer is
voyeuristically peering into.

Symbolically, the igloo-like structure resonates with multiple
meanings descending from the core idea of shelter. In tribal societies
in Mali, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea menstrual huts were created to
segregate women from the rest of their community, due to the taboo
associated around menstruation and the idea that therefore women were
‘impure’ [1] . Even within religions such as Russian Orthodox,
Hinduism and Judaism menstruating women were prohibited from entering
temples or going to church. [2] Thus, this history attitudes towards
menstruation can be related to the meaning behind this work, in the
sense that the idea of a space, which segregates women is instead
satirised by the prominent outside structure adorned with menstrual
pads.

In addition to these references to menstrual huts, the outside
structure also alludes to issues surrounding the environment and
waste. The actual structure of the tent situates the work within the
outdoors and yet it is juxtaposed with the plastic and polyethylene
structure of the menstrual pads that are non-biodegradable. This
notion of menstrual pads as a product that later becomes waste is
particularly prevalent and current issues surrounding the GST tax on
pads and tampons (in Australia) can also come to mind with the expense
in purchasing such products.

Similarly, the interior of the work draws on inspiration from
menstrual huts and contemporary issues surrounding menstruation. The
intimate space reveals the usually considered private dimension of one
having their period. In particular, the large blood smear on the bed
sheets references a current issue in the media of an artist who
photographed herself lying in bed, with blood on the bed sheets and
her clothes [3] . This photo that was deemed offensive by the website
instagram was later censored, causing dismay. In this sense,
menstruation can still be seen as a taboo issue, reserved only for
consideration in private spaces.

Overall, this work is multi-faceted through the incorporation of a
variety of issues surrounding the abject nature of menstruation and
its remnants, as well as what one considers to be public versus
private space. The impending structure directly confronts the viewer
with the end product of the menstruation process and the menstrual
pads existing within a visible public space.

[1]   M Guterman, P Mehta, M Gibbs. Menstrual Taboos Among Major
Religions. The Internet Journal of World Health and Societal Politics.
2007 Volume 5 Number 2.

[2]   ibid.

[3]  Zhang, M. (2015). Instagram Censors Photo of Fully Clothed Woman
on Period, Causes Uproar. PetaPixel. Retrieved 18 June 2015, from
http://petapixel.com/2015/03/28/instagram-censors-photo-of-fully-clothed-woman-on-period-causes-uproar/

See photos of the installation.
More about menstrual huts.

NEXT artist: Judy Jones
See all the artists in the links in the left-hand column.

If you create or own art concerning menstruation or menopause and are interested in showing it on these pages (it's free!), contact MUM


© 2016 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org