FUCK THE SYSTEM

“I try to capture all the little fun moments that happen when living with cats. All my little cat comics are done on 4 by 4 post-it notes! My fluffy friends are always a great source of inspiration and entertainment. And best of all they are always there when you need a hug or a good cry.”

Boho Scandinavian attic apartment

Zanele Muholi’s Isilumo siyaluma series depict the notion of ‘painful periods’ in a decorative pattern using her own menstrual blood.  As representations of flowers, these images symbolise a de-flowering of women, and a brutalisation of their sexual rights. This idea of de-flowering continues through as what Muholi refers to as South African men intending to ‘cure’ lesbian women by means of rape.

“Isilumo siyaluma is a Zulu expression that can be loosely translated as “period pains/periods pain”. Additionally, there is an added meaning in the translation that there is something secretive in and about this blood/“period in time.”

At one level, my project deals with my own menstrual blood, with that secretive, feminine time of the month that has been reduced within Western patriarchal culture as dirty.

On a deeper level then, my menstrual blood is used as a vehicle and medium to begin to express and bridge the pain and loss I feel as I hear and become witness to the pain of ‘curative rapes’ that many of the girls and women in my black lesbian community bleed from their vaginas and their minds.”