Homemade ornaments

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I used to live in NYC and read ARTnews magazine and other artsy publications to keep on top of the contemporary art gallery scene. Of course there was much competition to produce exciting new work that might get you noticed during the art boom back then.
I remember about 20 years ago I read a feature article on a woman artist in NYC who had a show in a respected gallery. Her show consisted of her own saved used feminine pads, each one titled and preciously framed in a plexiglass box and hung on the wall. The names were inspired by the various interesting patterns of menstrual blood, sort of like the old ink blot tests. There were pads named things like "leaping rabbit", "sacrifice", or "lost in red canyon" etc. They looked like museum artifacts.
At first I was so grossed out. But after thinking about her "painting" her cotton canvases with her own female body, and giving value to something from our bodies that was usually shunned, hidden, and discarded, it began to make sense and I could appreciate it on a different level.
I know, weird story....but certainly this thread made me remember it. I wonder what that artist is doing now? Wish I could remember her name.
Nowadays there are lots of women artists using menstrual blood as a painting medium, etc,...but as I recall this woman was one of the first long ago, and it was quite shocking to the public back then.

The online Museum of Menstruation (MUM) is always fascinating place to wander about:
http://www.mum.org/index.html

[Mr. Bloom]

I know, weird story....

Yep...I nominate Lisa for "Understatement of the Year"

[Flybye]

I am thinking that bodily functions aren't art, no matter how nice the frame. What's next, soiled diapers?
Not sold, not at all.
Ick!

[Aggie_Ama]

I must say Lisa is one of the only people I *know* who could make such an exhibit sound profound, beautiful and worthy. I am still pretty much grossed out though.

[Mr. Bloom]

I must say Lisa is one of the only people I *know* who could make such an exhibit sound profound, beautiful and worthy. I am still pretty much grossed out though.

Ditto!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I must say Lisa is one of the only people I *know* who could make such an exhibit sound profound, beautiful and worthy. I am still pretty much grossed out though.

I'll take that as a compliment, thanks!
I too was rather grossed out by the feminine pad exhibition- yet I was also intrigued by it's idea and message and overall I don't mind getting a bit grossed out if it results in my being able to consider things in new ways that challenge my entrenched perceptions.

Like good literature, music, film, and poetry, visual art comes in many forms- it can be beautiful, thought provoking, disturbing, uplifting, spiritual, angry, funny, serene, shocking, heartwarming, grief-stricken, or combinations of those and other things. Distilled to its simplest equation, it makes us feel and makes us think, one way or another.

[wannaduacentury]

I'll take that as a compliment, thanks!
I too was rather grossed out by the feminine pad exhibition- yet I was also intrigued by it's idea and message and overall I don't mind getting a bit grossed out if it results in my being able to consider things in new ways that challenge my entrenched perceptions.

Like good literature, music, film, and poetry, visual art comes in many forms- it can be beautiful, thought provoking, disturbing, uplifting, spiritual, angry, funny, serene, shocking, heartwarming, grief-stricken, or combinations of those and other things. Distilled to its simplest equation, it makes us feel and makes us think, one way or another.

Lisa, A few years ago, I saw in a magazine an art exhibit in NY that showed "period panties" as art. Women saved their yucky drawers for art, similiar to the one you saw. I wouldn't air my dirty laundry though, but you're right, that artist thought "outside the box" on that one. Jenn

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, A few years ago, I saw in a magazine an art exhibit in NY that showed "period panties" as art. Women saved their yucky drawers for art, similiar to the one you saw. I wouldn't air my dirty laundry though, but you're right, that artist thought "outside the box" on that one. Jenn

Oh, those naughty urban guerilla girls!
Though I must say, once this kind of exhibit has broken new ground and been done once or twice, ensuing variations on it seem like somewhat weak attempts to get noticed. It seems to me just a bit too easy to use taboo underwear/secretion artifacts simply displayed "as is" as a way to get the general public's knickers in a knot. Talk about Found Art.

Are we still on subject for this thread? Aren't tampon xmas ornaments sort of in the same genre?

[bmccasland]

I am thinking that bodily functions aren't art, no matter how nice the frame. What's next, soiled diapers?
Not sold, not at all.
Ick!

Not art but when I lived on an Indian Reservation in Arizona, a certain tribal member colleague of mine referred to soild diapers and "burritos". Haven't been able to face one on a restaurant menu since.