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1WantYour3lood Part 2,

The Menstrual Symphony, by Christen Clifford

at Grace Exhibition Space

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The piece is feminine and delicate, but upon closer examination the thick blood swirling in the bottles nevertheless triggers a feeling of disgust.

-artnet

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It certainly is powerful. In Christen Clifford’s I Want Your Blood, the artist and her collaborators literally bleed for the cause, creating a menagerie of vials and bottles containing blood meant to act as a totem for the sacredness of the human body. “I found the process very satisfying,” said participant and writer Jillian McManemin, whose donated blood sits in an antique Avon bottle. “Like I was in on a naughty ancient ritual.”

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IWANTYOURBLOOD is an installation of 25 glass shelves holding hundreds of miniature perfume bottles filled with donated menstrual blood from all genders.

Photo is a close up of a central shelf. My mother’s Chanel bottle is on the far right. The large bottle in the back is a full sized bottle of Shalimar that one of my brothers gave to my mother. After she died, I kept her bottle of Shalimar, and her empty Chanel No 5 bottle. When I started using a menstrual cup, I started experimenting with saving my menstrual blood: plastic containers, glass containers, vials,  medical specimen jars. 

One day I decided to add the blood to the half full bottle of Shalimar. I used this as a blessing for myself, and sometimes when I did performance art or installations I would offer it to my audience. It was magical, this mixture of my mother’s perfume and my menstrual blood.

I had been a “perfume girl” as a teenager growing up, dressed in my best black dress and pumps, dousing passersby with Nikki de Saint Phalle. So I started collecting perfume bottles, and filling them with my blood. Then, as with so many of my projects, the work expands past my body to include other bodies, all colors and genders, any menstruating body.

It was shown in the group show Abortion Is Normal at Gallerie Eva Presenhuber, in 2020, curated by Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol. This show also had work by Marilyn Minter and Nan Goldin!

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IWANTYOURBLOOD installation view in the group show Abortion Is Normal at Gallerie Eva Presenhuber, curated by Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol. This show also had work by Marilyn Minter and Nan Goldin!

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Composed of miniature perfume bottles filled with decanted period blood that the artist collected from menstruating people of all genders, Christen Clifford’s installation “I Want Your Blood” (2013–2019) juxtaposes the trappings of traditional feminine desirability with the often hidden (and shamed) bodily experience of menstruation. The blood used in Clifford’s work, as well as in Portia Munson’s “Menstrual Prints” (1993) series also highlights the arbitrary framing of abortion as an ending of life, since each menstrual period involves the shedding of uterine lining, which contains an egg that could have been fertilized and led to pregnancy.

Hyperallergic

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love this

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We are in the diginews!  We bleed hard and heavy.

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JUST click to watch it on Vimeo instead of on Tumblr  

Excerpt from Test Run of The Menstrual Symphony at Grace Exhibition Space 2015 

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TEST RUN of The Menstrual Symphony at Grace Exhibition Space 2015

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“ritual come from r’tu, meaning menstruation in Sanskrit and the word taboo comes from tapua, meaning sacred in Polynesian.”

Vanessa Tiegs

http://www.vanessatiegs.com/creations/menstrala/

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Is this safe?

I am working with a specialist in blood borne diseases, and no one will touch the menstrual blood if it isn’t safe.