This sculpture was made during my time as an artist resident at Shangyuan Art Museum in Beijing, China. In many of my pieces, I experiment with natural dyes (madder root, safflower, and purple gromwell root) that are also used in traditional Chinese medicine to create color and form. By using this medicine, the subsequent piece of work represents its healing properties connecting my own health history with the piece. In the installation “Blood Memory,” I explore a blood disorder that I had as a child. The side effects of my blood disorder, Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura or ITP, was that my body had trouble getting my blood to clot. Madder root is the Chinese medicinal plant that helps promote clotting in the blood. I dyed the left half of the installation with my own menstrual blood and the right half with madder root. By mixing these two mediums together I am recalling my own blood history.
Materials: cotton, yarn, wire, madder root, menstrual blood
Dimensions: 5 ft x 1 ft
Materials: cotton, yarn, wire, madder root, menstrual blood
Dimensions: 5 ft x 1 ft