Christine Ilewski
“Life Blood” is exactly that, life giving. Without the flow of menstruation, directly experienced by women alone, we as a species would not exist.

The fact that we menstruate and don’t have complete control over our fertility, unless we have those parts removed, is a defining element of womanhood. I do believe that men have “cycles” too, but so much more emphasis is put on the “regulation” of womens’ cycles because it affects our human existence.

With modern technology we are told that it is “under control”, no longer a defining factor in our gender. There are patches that reduce a woman’s flow to four times a year or less. There is the pill, the diaphragm, sponges, caps, hysterectomy, ablation, and shots. These methods can be misused to control menses, ie: “population“. Though we can con ourselves that our biology is “under control”, the truth is, it is still gender defining.

Each woman’s experience of menses is unique. We can commiserate over similar side effects, positive and negative: cramps, headaches, moods, pregnancy, childbirth, infertility, menopause... It is ultimately a lonely road to acceptance and, ideally, celebration of our biology.

Our true lack of control over our female biology is the reason we need exhibits like this. We need to voice that first shocking discovery of bright red flowing from our own bodies. We need to voice the indescribable feeling of movement in the womb marked by the total absence of blood. We need to voice the bright crimson that signals grief and the sudden loss of that movement in a miscarriage. We need to voice the rusty discoloration and endless staining warning of disease. And finally, we need to voice the stillness returned, that again can be celebrated or grieved.

I want to make work for this exhibit that speaks to all the stages of menses contained in its source vessel, the womb, bound together from beginning to end, the continuous creation of life’s blood.

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