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See
also a sample from a Dutch
book of art
illustrating words and expressions for
menstruation from around the world.
If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or menopause
and are interested in showing it on
thesepages (it's free!), contact MUM
Marie Claire magazine
(Italian edition) featured several
of the above artists in an article about
this
museum and menstruation in 2003. The
newspaper Corriere della Sera (Io Donna
magazine) (Milan, Italy) and the magazine
Dishy (Turkey) showed some of
the artists in 2005 in articles about this
museum.
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The Art of Menstruation at the Museum of
Menstruation and Women's Health
Red Flag
Judy Chicago, 1971
Photolithograph (51/94), 20"x
24," printed from aluminum plates
by Sam Francis in his personal
workshop, 1971. ©1971 Judy
Chicago
Judy Chicago donated this print
(number 51 of 94) to the Museum of
Menstruation
in 1998.
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Red Flag
may be the first work of art -
and it was, and is, controversial
- to show this commonplace event
in many
women's lives: removing a tampon.
The artist has commented that many
people
did not know what the red object
was; some thought it was a bloody
penis,
showing how unwilling many women
(and men!) are to look at
personal, but
everyday functions.
Ms. Chicago, the foremost
feminist artist in the
world, donated the print
to MUM. Some of her other artwork
are The
Dinner Party, Birth Project,
Holocaust Project and Menstruation
Bathroom. The Canadian
television
film Under
Wraps shows the 1995
re-installation
of the latter in the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
(it also
shows MUM); the work was first
created in Womanhouse in the
1970s.
The artist has published volumes
of autobiography as well as other
material.
The Canadian television production
company Starry
Night, which created
Under Wraps, is making a film of
Ms. Chicago's
work.
Her nonprofit organization, Through the
Flower,
invites you to contact them at 101
N. 2nd Street, Belen, New Mexico,
87002,
U.S.A., telephone (505) 864-4088.
And it now has a Web site:
Read more
about how Ms. Chicago gave the
print to this museum.
By the way, considering Red
Flag, the Washington Post wrote on
22 April
1998 about a new exhibit in the
National Museum of American
History showing
awful
working conditions in
some shops of the
garment industry in the U.S.A.
At the start of the displays,
some text explains why the museum
dared
create such a show (taken here
from the Post):
[The
mission of a history museum is
to] interpret difficult,
unpleasant, or controversial episodes, not
out of any desire to
embarrass, be unpatriotic, or
cause pain, but out of a responsibility
to convey a fuller, more
inclusive history.
In addition, I think that a
museum has the responsibility to
display
noncontroversial
aspects of its chosen subject
- but no one contests that, except
maybe for menstruation!
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NEXT
artist: Selin
Cileli (or start from the
first artist, alphabetically, Mayra
Alpízar)
See all the
artists in the links in
the left-hand
column.
If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or
menopause and
are interested in showing it on
thesepages (it's free!), contact
MUM
See
also
Bea Nettles' art The
Moonsisters
© 2002 Harry
Finley. It is illegal to reproduce
or distribute
work on this Web site in any
manner or medium without written
permission
of the author. Please report
suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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