The menstrual flow, call it a blessing or a curse, is a uniquely feminine experience. In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir wrote, "One is not born a woman, one becomes one." And, as all girls know, becoming a woman is clearly marked by that first event occurring roughly between the ages of 12 and 16. From then on, everything changes. We are now on moon-time: our body cycles ebbing and flowing like the tides. Suddenly we are sexual beings, aware of the power of our beauty and our capacity to bring life into the world.
On My Period is the most personal and introspective project I have ever attempted. This cyclical devotion to that special week of the month when I bleed has become a way for me to creatively explore my femininity.
RITUALS AND IMAGERY
When I began this project, I used the OB brand of tampon. The cotton string that dangled out of my vagina reminded me of a tail, giving birth to Devil Girl, the first of the personae that emerged on my period.
Raised in a Catholic environment, I was made well aware of "the devil" that lurked waiting to consume my innocence. The beginning of my menstrual flow marked my awareness of sex, questioning religious and societal norms, and the formation of my own identity. An external force when I was a child, "the devil" grew inside me as I bled monthly.
Devil
Girl is fierce and full of PMS rage. I began wearing two red chopsticks
through buns on either side of my head to complement my "tail."
Devil Girl opened me up to the many images throughout art history
portraying horns as a metaphor for the crescent moon (such as depictions
of the Moon Goddess, Artemis/Diana, goddess of the hunt).
When I learned about the dangers of dioxin in cotton tampons, I switched to wearing the sea sponge on my period, from which arose a new persona, The Mermaid. She smells of the ocean, but is seductive to sailors. Dwelling in lifegiving waters, The Mermaid reminds me to care for the environment. Wearing the reusable sea sponge added more washing to my monthly rituals, but instead of tossing disposables in the trash, the bloody wash became a nutritious treat for my house plants.
My blood soaked sponge also inspired a new ritual, body painting. The designs are different from month to month, connecting me to Prehistoric Matriarchs whose blood offerings were their monthly feminine flow, unlike patriarchal counterparts whose offerings to the gods were products of violence.
It was only a matter of time before my flow paint reached my face. Sometimes I wore PMS war paint boldly. Other times I wore my flow as rouge on my cheeks and lips, reminding me that the roots of make-up lay in a woman's desire to advertise that she is of childbearing age.
EVENTS
I documented my menstrual periods on photographs, webcam captures, videos, paintings and diary entries for two years. Although webcast and published on the internet, my rituals took place in the privacy of my home.
In the summer of 2003, my photograph titled, The Moon and I, went on exhibit at the Art @ Large Gallery in New York City. Attending the art opening was my first flesh and blood appearance alongside my work.
In 2004, a new stage of my life began: motherhood. I became pregnant immediately after I spoke to my husband about my desire to be a mother. I credit my fertility to healthy living, lustful imagination and the many blood offerings I made to the cosmos over the past two years.
On My Period is my celebration of the menstrual flow as a life-affirming cyclical ultra-feminine phenomenon - its monthly presence and its temporary absence during pregnancy both joyful manifestations of what it means to be a woman.