Bloodlines is a group exhibition which seeks to challenge the societal norms and restraints imposed on the female form by exploring the external and internal pressures and pleasures of the body.
Drawing from their own personal and collective experiences, artists Lisa Hill, Tsedaye Makonnen, Samera Paz, Iman Person and members of the àjé collective examine the corporeal connectivity of their ancestral histories through works on paper, sculpture, and performance. Works featured tow the line between fascination and repulsion, directly addressing the stigmas associated with a woman's menstrual cycle, while subtly exploring the effects of time on the physical and social body by shifting the meaning and interpretation of selfhood.
Through abstract renderings, Paz and Person both use their own menstrual blood as a medium, placing the viewer at the will of the material, while Hill’s fragile yet imposing installation also commands attention as she references the invisible inheritance passed down from mother to offspring by reproducing the shedding, scarring, and regeneration of skin on handmade paper. Through the exhibition’s performance programming Makonnen highlights the intense physicality of birth while the àjé collective’s performance explores the narrative ecologies of ‘moonblood’.
