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I was really happy to be invited to write a piece on menstrual taboos for the inspirational blog, All Dress Up with Nowhere to Go. I love the blog for its dark, yet inspirational take on feminism - which draws strength from exploring the difficult issues faced by everyday women. My contribution, is a continuation of the Blood Stained Dress project, submitted for the Icing Room - but with new images photographed at Sunny Sands, Folkstone, Kent.
Traditionally blood in art depicts heroism and martyrdom. However my embroidered piece, Blood Stained Dress celebrates the banal to explore menstrual taboos. Photographed across different locations, each setting adds their own narrative to the work.
The images photographed on the English South Coast explore isolation and period poverty. Traditionally white dresses symbolise purity, but also represent unattainable ideals. Menstrual taboos and scepticism, intensifies the suffering of those outside society. The sea personifies human existence; the serene but deadly waves have the both power to destroy, yet also cleanse and rebuild. Not all emotional scars will heal, but accepting their existence helps to make us stronger.
Video showing dress being battered by the waves - a victim of uncontrollable forces.