Audio-visual installation Period Piece explores the changing taboos around menstruation

Date
6 November 2017

As the last in a series of exhibitions on the theme of blood at London’s Science Gallery, a new installation opening tomorrow (7 November 2017) will explore the cultural taboos surrounding menstruation. Period Piece is a collaboration between artist Stephanie Bickford-Smith, composer Ion Marmarinos and historian Alana Harris, looking to “provoke critical dialogue about shifts in contraceptive technologies and constructions of the ‘natural’ cycles around women’s bodies,” from the pill to menstrual cycle tracking apps.

It comes after Bodyform and Libresse’s BloodNormal advert attempting to break down the stigma surrounding periods by showing “real” period blood was widely banned.

The show features an animation set to music, composed based on data from four women showing their fluctuating temperature during a cycle. Another piece reacts to the Humanae Vitae, an anti-birth control document published by the Vatican in 1968. The show invites visitors to “see and listen to the inside rhythms often hidden by secrecy and taboo”.

Period Piece opens at the Science Gallery, London from 7 November – 13 November 2017. A series of talks will be held in conjunction with the event, themed Feminism/Contraception, Period Trackers, and Science in Art – held by Daisy Ginsberg.

Share Article

About the Author

Jenny Brewer

Jenny oversees our editorial output across work, news and features. She was previously It’s Nice That's news editor. Get in touch with any big creative stories, tips, pitches, news and opinions, or questions about all things editorial.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.