petra paul

et al.


Menstruarte – Showing the Abjection

As feminist I’m concerned primarily with woman as a theme, or the showing of the ways women are discriminated against in this patriarchal society. Menstruation is a stigmatic condition (Ingrid Johnston-Robledo | Joan C. Chrisler). Women are regarded as of lesser value, as the other (Simone de Beauvoir). I’m concerned with showing this mechanism and at the same time with undermining it. 

By using menstrual blood in my informal and monochrome work, I draw attention to the negative taboo and publicy show something that is usually kept secret – everything is done to make the time of menstruation as invisible as possible. Cleanliness and discretion are foremost. The leaking women were seen as unclean, and the unpure blood contrasted with the masculine, healing blood of Christ. So I called a serie of menstruation pictures ”That’s the blood I’ve spilled for you”, the other simply “Menstruarte”. “Hidden Abject” shows blood through a small cut in the canvas. I try through the completed abstract structure of the menstrual blood to make the viewer aware of the theme, and second, I use the aesthetic work to reverse the negative value. Menstrual blood is abject: “Not me. Not that. But not nothing, either” (Julia Kristeva).


sightseeing – Frankfurt/Main – Photos © Raman Chana



mbb, 2015, 51 x 41 cm, 14 x 19 cm





Tamplosion, 1:54 Mins.

Petra Paul is working as a shot firer in the mountains and breaks the rock. Believe it’s a dusty and noisy job. As a feminist she has got her own dynamite to revolutionize this male dominated job and the patriarchy.  BANG...


mbb, 2015

 

20x20/10x10 cm

 

 



frames, 2015, 15x15cm/5x5cm 


menstruarte, 2015,  50x70cm


 

 

self-portrait

 

2015

24x30cm

18x24cm






the menstrual world – view from space, 2014, 31x31cm/∅19cm

2015

Das gesamte Blut von allen Frauen auf der Welt, gesammelt in Seen, Flüssen und Weltmeeren, würde den blauen Planeten in einen roten verwandeln.

Michèle Fuchs, Les Reines Prochaines, aus Syrup of Life

 



mbb, 14x19cm/∅5cm


mbb, 14x14cm/31x31cm



mbb 19x19cm/31x31cm



mbb 9x14cm

19x25cm



9x14cm

16x21cm

9x14cm

16x21cm

18x26cm/30x40



 

 

 

mbb 12x12cm/25x25cm


mbb 15,5x11cm/21x16cm


das ist das blut, das ich für euch vergossen habe 

that's the blood i've spilled for you 2002-2007 DIN A4

 

more pictures


mbb, 70x100cm


monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday


menstruationsblutmuseen, 2015


 

Menstrual Artists, u. a. Petra Paul erwähnt in:

 

Museum of Menstruation and Women' Health




„The American artist Vanessa Tiegs (http://menstrala.blogspot.com) and the German [sic!artist Petra Paul (http://mum.org/armenpau.htm) are known for collecting their menstrual flow...”

 

Ingrid Johnston-Robledo/Joan C. Chrisler: The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma. In: Chris Bobel/Inga T. Winkler/Breanne Fahs/Katie Ann Hasson/Elizabeth Arveda Kissling/Tomi-Ann Roberts (Editors): The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore 2020, pp 181-199

 

This book is an open access book, you can download it for free on link.springer.com: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811506130#aboutAuthors



Andreia Nunes: Estudo de caso da Exposição Widening the Cycle (Boaron 2015) – o Ciclo Menstrual e os Direitos Reprodutivos

(Boston, 2015) 
 –
 o Ciclo Menstrual e os Direitos Reprodutivo
 
Estudo de caso da Exposição 
Widening the Cycle
 (Boston, 2015) 
 –
 o Ciclo Menstrual e os Direitos Reprodutivos 
Uc: História de Arte / MEEC - Gestão Cultural Discente: Andreia Nunes / 70992 Docente: Professora Doutora Paula André
 
Estudo de caso da Exposição 
Widening the Cycle
 (Boston, 2015) 
 –
 o Ciclo Menstrual e os Direitos Reprodutivos 
Uc: História de Arte / MEEC - Gestão Cultural Discente: Andreia Nunes / 70992 Docente: Professora Doutora Paula André
 
Estudo de caso da Exposição 
Widening the Cycle
 (Boston, 2015) 
 –
 o Ciclo Menstrual e os Direitos Reprodutivos 
Uc: História de Arte / MEEC - Gestão Cultural Discente: Andreia Nunes / 70992 Docente: Professora Doutora Paula André
 
Estudo de caso da Exposição 
Widening the Cycle
 (Boston, 2015) 
 –
 o Ciclo Menstrual e os Direitos Reprodutivos 
Uc: História de Arte / MEEC - Gestão Cultural Discente: Andreia Nunes / 70992 Docente: Professora Doutora Paula André





 

Widening the Cycle:

A Menstrual Cycle & Reproductive Justice Art Show

Exhibit Catalogue

by Jen Lewis 

Hardcover, ImageWrap US $ 90
Harcover, Dust Jacket US  $ 90
Softcover US $ 50

 

 
PDF Free Download with Photos of the Exhibition
 
 
 
 
 

 


Pattern and Decoration. An Ideal Vision in American Art. 1975-1985, Edited by Anne Swartz, Hudson River Museum, New York 2007, 121 Seiten, S. 48 (Google Books). 


Ashly S. Patterson: The Menstrual Body, University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations, 2013.


Ingrid Johnston-Robledo, Joan C. Chrisler: The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma, in: Sex Roles, Volume 68, Issue 1-2, Springer Verlag, pp 9-18.


Nina Funnell: Leaky Ladies and Their Worrisome Wombs, in: Destroying the Joint: Why Women Have to Change the World, QUP 2013, p. 228-245 (Google Books).


Ashly Patterson: The Social Construction and Resistance of Menstruation as a Public Spectacle, in: D. Nicole Farris/Mary Ann Davis/D'Lane R. Compton (Editors): Illuminating How Identities, Stereotypes and Inequalities Matter through Gender Studies, New York/Heidelberg/Dordrecht/London 2014, p. 91-108.


Louise Knauß: Menstruationshygiene. Zur Bedeutung von Hygieneartieln bei der Internalisierung von Sauberkeitsnormen 1920-2006, VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, 129 Seiten, S. 104.


Vera Schiavazzi: Profondo Rosso, in: Marie Claire magazine, Italy 2003