Period Piece

This vintage fabric titled "Four Seasons" inspired me to make a banner about the hormone cycle of menstruation. In my banner I want to include information about the different hormones that peak and fall during the various weeks of the cycle and their side effects. This urge to learn and teach about the inner workings of both my body and anyone who menstruates comes from a lack of education at school about this cycle. It also comes from having discussions with my peers about how we are working out how our bodies and hormones affect us and how we can work with it rather than against it. I began making this when I was healing from the car crash and I was forced to understand my body in new ways, thus I wanted to learn even more and I was more aware of my health and functioning than ever. I used childish beads to express this nostalgia for girlhood, something I feel was robbed from me as I began to be sexualised from before I even got my period. When I first got it at 12 years old I cried and cried and cried because I didn't want to 'become a woman'. I already knew the kind of responsibilities and burdens that came with the title.