Holding Space

Exhibited: ANU Grad Show 2021, Craft ACT’s Emerging Contemporaries 2022, and, ANU New Alumni 2022

Materials: polyfill stuffed cotton drill and poplin, brass eyelets, brass hooks

Related Project: Holding Space originated from my research into Informed Decision Making in Regard to Hormonal Contraception for my Design Capstone Independent Project

Holding Space comprises a series of sculptural textiles banners that materialise the language of menstrual shame. Menstrual shame exists in a culture of concealment which expects us to be least visible at our most vulnerable. This work gives physical form to silenced words so as to make us feel seen and heard.  

Historically rooted in activism, Holding Space utilises the language of our foremothers in the protest banners of marches past. It combines the political mobilisation and community building of quilt making with the soft sculptural possibilities of text as object. Thoughts and emotions have been made visible and are validated through the care of embodied labour. While the words invoke shame, the scale and the inherent softness of the banners offer comfort, as if they could hold the body with domestic familiarity.

Whilst holding space for connection and conversation, these banners seek to dismantle the language of menstrual shame and call for action: asserting a space for change.

Holding Space - Pinned

Exhibited: ANU Grad Show 2021

Materials: hand cut cotton jersey hammered on wall

Holding Space Pinned comprises process based work consisting of hand cut and manipulated letters nailed to a wall. This performance based piece sees text as material object, giving physical form to specific periods of menstrual shame.

Growing frustrations underpins the beginning of the work, capturing those that start their menstrual journey becoming inconvenienced by their body. Coloured in blue, the colour of secrecy and shame in menstrual advertisements, the hand cut letters are stretched, arranged and nailed to a wall. The middle of the work, coloured red, briefly shows an attempt to dismantle shame through conversation. Though as honest as these conversations may be, they are silenced by band-aid solutions. Coloured blue, the final phrase is distorted, both by manipulation of the hand, and manipulation of the text underneath.