Untitled 2002

Published in Semper Magazine, earlier in the year.

This work is part of a series of shots I took, of menstrual blood. Research at the time focussed on abjection (see Julia Kristeva's essay Powers of Horror). Body fluids such as blood, shit, pus, vomit repulse us because they transverse the boundaries of the inside and outside. They reveal what the cosmetic surface seeks to conceal.

Lacans' theory of the Mirror Stage details the point at which, as a child we make a distinction between ourselves and Other. Theorists have argued that the abject repulses us because it functions as a reminder of the traumatic separation between mother and child.

This is part of an ongoing body of research; linking in to the Oedipus complex, the Cartesian concept of 'I' and the socially constructed nature of gender.

I'm pleased with these pieces; I enjoy working with photographs that have a peformative and ephemeral aspect; further emphasised by their transition into cyber space.