The Cosmic Mother (2023)
Photo 120cm x 96cm, installation 8x4x3m
Film developed and printed with a ritual plant mixture (menstrual blood, beetroot, rose petals)
Audio: electronic steroscope, archival audio
Installation materials: sand, rose petals, cotton, juniper, hamp rope
The Cosmic Mother installation features a primordial soundscape that is created when the artist’s maternal lineage heartbeats merge into one sound continuum. As the person changes,
the audio soundtracks overlap as their heartbeats synchronize. At times, the beats harmonize perfectly, while the other times they create discordant rhythms that seek balance between harmony and disharmony.
The altar in the middle of the hut is built from an organic film processing solution from a bodily self portrait. The image is developed with beets, rose petals collected from the land of the the artist’s ancestors, and the author’s menstrual blood. This ritualistic development process questions whether the artist can create an act that restores the freedom of the depicted object - the female body - as a self-determining actor.
Cosmic Mother is a Bachelor of Culture and Arts work written at the Institute of Fine Arts & Design, Lahti. The thesis deals with a woman’s transformation from a masculine-dominated society back to the body and womb consciousness. The work is written from an autobiographical point of view.
In the written part, the author describes both the artistic and mental process through social programming, from the point of view of pain, shame, transformation and love. The author analyzes key historical and social phenomena for the work, such as the narrative of shame around menstruation, the etymology related to the uterus, the history of witch persecution as part of the subjugation of the female body, and the relationship of plants to the female body. The author also reflects on the roots of making art as a ritual act. Is a naked woman as an artist an aspiration and an act towards collective freedom? How did we end up from worshipped and sacred female body into chained sexuality? What is sacred in this time?
