NEWS !

The Cupart at Radical Anthropology Group – UCL

The Origins Of Art And Menstrual Art Today

Tuesday, September 27, 2016 – 18:45
Daryll Forde Seminar Room, Anthropology Building
14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW.
Tube: Euston Square. map

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On this special occasion Cupart works will be displayed and talked about.
Camilla Power will put the Cupart in perspective with cave art, rock art, ancient ochre crayons and hunter gatherer traditions.

More details about the event here :
http://radicalanthropologygroup.org/syllabus/origins-art-and-menstrual-art-today

 

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Cupart are productions made from monthly collections which were done with a menstrual cup.

I started this process in April 2015, and it has since become a sort of ritual.
The first time I used a menstrual cup instead of other traditional sanitary products, I was struck by the beauty of what I had collected.

The wonderment I felt was much linked to my genuine fascination for colour. I found thrilling that it could be self-produced. I must say that this is not unconnected to the influence which the work of Yves Klein has on me. The exhibition called “Body, Colour, Immaterial” which took place at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2006 had a really strong impact on me.

(click on the pictures to see them bigger)

 

The several times after when I had to empty the cup, I found a shame to throw away the natural paint which was generated by a female body.

It took me some time to dare, one day, to lay it on a sheet of paper. This very day, the Cupart was born, and has been evolving ever since then.

I like this idea that periods, often perceived as heavy, painful or ashaming,
can also lead to creativity and playfulness, and that we can celebrate this aliveness within us. Thinking about this practice, it appeared to me as it is also potentially related to a primitive act of painting and exploring colours in prehistoric times.

 

As my practice developed, I became curious about different tools to draw with, and different qualities and types of paper and mediums to use. The conservation also became an important issue for such a production. Then it became obvious for me that I wanted to share this work, because there is no reasons for such a fundamental process like periods to remain unspoken about, hidden and hushed up.
Beyond the will to break the taboo around menstruations, I am as well a big supporter of menstrual cups :

• Sanitary products (pads, tampons…) are not ecological, (why using disposable products, when only one could be enough to last for years).
• It has been shown recently that they could contain harmful products, such as weed killers or pesticides.
• Menstrual cups are better for the body, as they cannot affect any internal area (for example they do not change the pH balance of the vagina nor cause “micro-tears” in the vaginal lining as some tampons can, so there is little risk of the vaginal or bacterial infections).

 

(click on the pictures to see them bigger)