菜单
PERIOD
This is a performance art video about menarche.
Sex education is often lacking in Chinese family education, which means that most girls have little or no knowledge about it. When they do experience menarche, they often feel confused, scared, and overwhelmed. Menstruation has become an embarrassing topic avoided in discussions.
Based on this situation, I created a large sanitary pad that I wear for public performances.
From the 22nd to the 26th person, symbolizing the menstrual period, the liquid in their water pistols corresponds to the different colors of blood on different days of the menstrual cycle, from light to dark. In the video, on the 22nd day when I experience menarche, I express anxiety, confusion, and menstrual pain. I then change into clean clothes, continue to the first day of the next cycle (the second circle), and eventually return to the 22nd day, where I put on a sanitary pad again.”
Through these two experiences, I gain an understanding. “I know it now”. Finally, I return the blood-soaked pad to its original position and walk out of the circle. This circle represents not only the menstrual cycle but also the cage of social prejudice and lack of sex education. We have to break out of it.
The background music, sampled from the first and third movements of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, incorporates the sound of outdoor rain and thunderstorms.
The tempo of the first movement was slow but full of emotion. It matches the girl’s first period in the video, with the sound of light rain in the background.
The third movement is full of irrepressible passion; the fast rhythm shows the inner boiling and emotional catharsis, with the thunder of the rainstorm strongly expressing the panic of the first period.
At the end of the video, the end of the third movement is used to highlight the emotional climax; when the passion reaches its peak, it suddenly becomes silent, but the emotion inside does not dissipate.
