These paintings are part of a series inspired by a year-long study
of menstrual superstitions. I am a senior illustration student, about
to graduate from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design [in 2008],
and the topic of menstrual superstitions was my senior thesis. I was attracted
to this subject almost by chance, stumbling upon a few web sites (including
this one [MUM]) that described a seemingly endless flood of myths that
were arguably the most shocking and insanely comical beliefs I had ever
read. Oddly enough, I
was told that I was the only person in the history of that class that chose
menstrual superstitions. My study, although
endlessly fascinating to me and many of the women in my class, was unfortunately
met with long uncomfortable silences in the
beginning, and I had a difficult time getting feedback from my colleagues. But, the more I talked about
it, the less uncomfortable everyone became.
[That was my experience when people visited the museum in my house.] It was interesting
to see the progress and change of both my own work and the class's involvement
in it. What began in silence, ended in constant encouragement to push the
boundaries of what to show visually - to be more graphic, more disturbing,
more unflinching in my statement.
The paintings themselves were inspired by specific superstitions, like
the accounts of "displaced bleeding," and the Greek philosopher
Pliny's remark that fruit will rot and fall from the trees upon encountering
a menstruating woman.
Most of the superstitions I was most inspired by were ancient or indigenous,
but they are also what I felt most contributed to current taboos about
menstruation.
In this series of paintings, I sought to confront the viewer with both
the repugnance of the superstitions while still maintaining a bit of beauty
in the figure. They are each 24" by 32", acrylic on wood. The
first, "The Contaminated,"
was meant to show the human reproductive organs of a dismembered and faceless
women, as the pollution beliefs may literally have imagined them to be.
The second: "To Bleed Without Wound,"
juxtaposes stigmata with menstruation, as both instances, whether real
or not, can be broken down to the same thing (bleeding without a wound)
but one is revered as godly, the other as ungodly. And the third,"Strange Fruit," references superstitions
about how menstruation causes decay, while also juxtaposing it to the life-bearing
torso of a pregnant woman.