Bloodletting Menstruation Art by Jennifer Weigel
Let’s take a brief intermission from the creepy comic collages to talk about my show opening next weekend shall we… I have been involved in menstruation awareness and reproductive rights advocacy through my art for over a decade. Some of these pieces are very intentionally horrific, either to raise awareness of injustices that can and are occurring, or to poke fun at some perceptions associated with the supposed terrors of menstruation.
With the new show coming and considering my recent interviews with Broken Doll Head, I thought I’d share some highlights from the genre as a teaser, including this Lil Miss Spurtz video from Halloween 2017.
Lil Miss Spurtz
My persona Lil Miss Spurtz was my crass and inappropriate avatar of menstruation who appeared in a series of videos released on a schedule of… wait for it… every month. Here she is having a Psycho Carrie moment while trying to take a shower.
Relic
This sculpture incorporates a textured handmade paper moon goddess face in silver, a small jar of saffron signifying wealth, faux insects, candles, and a rubber fetus. Pro-life advocates were known to hand such rubber fetuses to women entering abortion clinics, but many have appeared in art in various forms. This is meant to remind one of the old religious collections of found objects and human bits and pieces supposedly belonging to saints, prophets, apostles and even Christ himself. I’ve always found this history both creepy and fascinating.
Death Sentence
This artwork, as seen in the recent Bodies anthology, is a more direct advocacy piece based upon the Pro-Life Nation article chronicling events that were happening in El Salvador more than two decades ago. My piece predates the overturn of Roe v Wade and focuses on some possibilities in the aftermath of such political action. It has appeared in various forms; this iteration includes a maternity shirt hung on the wall at human height with tangled fiber art accents that spill down the wall and onto the floor. Another, with the inclusion of my own menstrual blood, recently appeared in Roe 2.0 at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago IL USA.
Text reads: Gang-raped, beaten and left in a back alley to die. Pro-life nation has made it illegal to abort. The doctors say that the fetus is lodged in my fallopian tube. Carrying this child to term will most certainly kill me. This is my death sentence. My rapists, after serving only a brief time in jail, are allowed to go free.
Note: if you purchase Bodies through the link provided you will earn some money for Haunted MTL as well, and proceeds benefit charity. So Dark Lord Cthulhu says, “What are you waiting for? Shop away!”
Anyway, I wanted to share these pieces as I gear up for my next big function associated with this series of work, the release of my Ebb and Flow Journal which will be installed in Miami AZ for a year to garner donations of feminine care products for local shelters and food pantries there.
Feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or on her writing, fine art, and conceptual projects websites.
So I happened upon this very cheesecake-heavy premiere issue of Extremes of Violet, complete with pinups by some of the comic book greats of the time, and decided to make some Peeping Toms collage art by incorporating the voluptuous vixen into various crystal pieces to create a sort of fishbowl effect centered largely on her bosom (which is unavoidable).
Each of the Peeping Toms is shown from three angles because of how much the pieces shift as the light plays off the crystal. I started with these star forms.
The second bowl was even a bit iridescent, and violet at that!
Next I did a series of really perky busty bowls, which really get the feeling across that you are looking through the tiny peephole in a door as well as exemplifying the content even more. Note: these are shown in two rows with side details as well, so there are a lot of pics here…
I experimented a little and tried a couple of other scenes, like the portrait, as well. She’s staring back at the Peeping Toms…
I also tried this more square bowl form.
And finally, I found this little heart, which is my personal favorite of the group.
These works are a continuation of my Creepy Comics collage series, shown on Haunted MTL here.
Creepy Comics 5
Feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or on her writing, fine art, and conceptual projects websites.
So I probably should have taken a before picture, but I found a faux wood stained plaster Jesus statue and turned it into Zombie Christ. Because it’s the second second coming. Or something. It’s kind of an offshoot of my nail polish paintings reappropriating thrift store art…
Anyway without further ado, I present…
I was a little concerned that I made him too green at first, but I’m happy with the finished result. This statue just looked so anguished. It’s eyes had been closed but I like them better open and even painted them with blacklight reactive nail polish so they will stand out even more and be interactive in other ways to add creepy factor.
Sadly I don’t have a blacklight anymore or I’d share a picture that way too. Oh well. I’ll leave you with a fun detail shot instead.
Next time I may make him more gray than green though. We shall see…
Feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or on her writing, fine art, and conceptual projects websites.
So it’s been awhile since we’ve looked at some of the things I have gathered, so I thought I’d bring back my art collection for another round… Here are the first and second highlights in case you missed earlier explorations.
From left to right: M Pena Windstone Editions bat-winged flap cat, bone mask by Terry and Susan Wright, wood cat in skull by labcreature, real hair art by myself, pencil drawing of Barbarois Elder for Vampire Hunter D anime cel
From left to right: Barbarois Elder for Vampire Hunter D anime cel, Turn Me Royal portrait of my father and stepmother as Frankenstein’s monster and his bride, painted horse skull
Left to right: Overgrowth by Ellie Bradley, heart by TenderFlesh, praying devil girl by Torman’s Treasures
And a vintage plastic 2-foot Jack O Lantern I got at a yard sale and have kept on display on his very own stool in the living room since. So happy.
Anyway, there are some more highlights from my art collection, as it is always growing and evolving. I have lucked into several of these pieces at antique and thrift stores or acquired them from the artists or more. And yes, I still have Da Ting the taxidermy shih-tzu from the first of these posts.
