These watercolours originated from the creative surge at the time of menstruation and led to the artistic act of joyful self-observation and self-assurance of the event, to the self-confident realisation of the physical and inner states.

Text for Renate Kordon – Shifting Colours of the Mind, Kate Howlett-Jones...

Renate Kordon’s series Shifting Colours of the Mind was produced over the two years spanning May 1980 to June 1982. Having realised that for her the time of menstruation was an opportunity for particularly creative and concentrated productivity, Kordon worked every month on a series that grew into the comprehensive collection of small, vivid watercolours. now inventoried and shared here for the first time.

These images are each unique and yet, in their exuberant fantasy and vibrant palettes, instantly recognisable as Renate Kordon’s work. They are populated by enigmatic forms that stretch and float through space in capricious bursts of imagination, intuition and the shifting colours of the mind. As elsewhere in the artist’s oeuvre, these strange and enthralling images are suffused with a playful fluidity, testing the viewer’s way of seeing and ultimately inviting us to dismantle our limits, both external and self-imposed. These are pictures that confuse our usual habits of viewing and understanding and, in doing so, poke fun at our very need to understand the world, and the restrictions involved in this desire to grasp and categorise everything. The artist describes the images as self-portraits of how she perceived her physical entirety at the time of their creation, and the self translated into watercolour. Their structure and composition imply a process of automatic, trance-like drawing that channels external forces, while also working through the personal. These vivid creatures and shapes spring, it seems, from a deep well of dream sequences that flicker and glow in a way reminiscent of the radiant wall projections produced by Kordon at a later stage in her career. They dance across the paper, ready to leap over its borders, infused with energy and movement, like stills from a video, moments from a continuum, barely contained on the sheet. Some, for instance AR61, 62 and 63 of May 1981, make clearer figurative reference to the phenomenon of menstruation, although none of the series portray figures that we would identify as ‘women’ as such. Some move towards a more abstract presentation—the pictures produced in the following month, June of 1981, repeat a uterus-like form that shifts from paler pastels towards vibrant, darker hues, breaks up, spirals, reshapes into ambiguous, extra-terrestrial life-forms that could be friendly, or hostile, or simply unconcerned with us.
In August of 1981, from AR 111-125, a similar cinematic transformation occurs as the series progresses from forms resembling cross-sections of primal, amoeba-like organisms, morphing and evolving into a blurry, spectral presence. Many of the images have what appear to be faces, or what our perception seeks to categorise as faces, but which on closer inspection could just be a coincidence of eye- and mouth-like markings that persist in puzzling the observer.

Each image can evoke a range of normally unconnected emotions, such as in Erdbeerfrau (strawberry woman): a strawberry-shaped monster looms, in vibrant pinks, with a tufted green calyx as her mons pubis—by turns intriguing, wistful and humorous. Here we can taste the strawberries of childhood summers, sense the fertile ripening of the fruit, and wonder about the faceless melancholy of this lonely, drifting creature.

The series Shifting Colours of the Mind challenges our gaze as viewers and at the same time calls on us to reassess our inner view and perception of the world. Always in their own subtle, playful way, they unveil the absurdity of our fixed ideas and also the absurdity of being imprisoned by convention. Because these are not only images produced during menstruation: they are pictures that are intrinsically about menstruation, and specifically about our attitude towards it, as shaped by entrenched ideas of revulsion and shame, and by patriarchal constructs of what femininity should entail.

Even today, our old-fashioned, guilt-ridden reactions to the reality of menses persist largely unquestioned, despite decades of feminism. Culturally, the stigma and taboos attached to menstruation are deeply embedded in the assumption of women’s inferiority to men. Various religions still insist on menstrual segregation, affirming a belief in the polluting nature of women; one of the most common and enduring euphemisms for menstruation is ‘the curse’, alluding to women’s inherently sinful nature, as guilty descendants of Eve who have earned the punishment of regular bloodshed and shame. Since a menstruating woman can be seen as a woman at her most womanly, this is when she is at her most repulsive, most frightening. Interpreted as a sign of fertility, it is a reminder of a woman’s extraordinary ability to bear children, and yet nonetheless is re-defined by patriarchal cultures not only as an abomination but also as a weakening phenomenon, one that supposedly makes women incapable of action or thought for a week in every month. Both men and women widely buy into the idea that menstruation is something to be minimised, observing an etiquette whereby this most normal and natural of physical processes is rendered unmentionable, carefully managed in order to make it invisible for the benefit of polite society, reduced to the pale blue liquids on scented sanitary towels portrayed in ‘feminine hygiene’ advertisements. Half of humankind know or will know what it is to menstruate, and yet we rarely stop to ask: who, exactly, gets to decide our experience and understanding of this fundamental part of life?

There have, mainly historically, been cultures where an entirely different approach evolved to menstruation and its onset. Cherokee tradition interpreted menstrual blood as a source of strength, with the capacity to destroy enemies. Aboriginal Australians used dried menstrual blood as a healing agent, while red ochre was sometimes used to paint sacred stones and the body in order to represent menstrual blood, seen as having magical, life-holding properties. The Navaho people practise a ritual called the kinaalda, seen as the most important of all rituals because it symbolises new life. Following menarche, the kinaalda brings together both the men and women of the girl’s extended family to celebrate the blooming of her physical power and character. The Nootka people challenge the endurance of a girl at the start of puberty by taking her far out from the shore and leaving her to swim back alone, so demonstrating the strength and stamina she has gained with this change. These and other life-affirming ceremonies performed to mark menarche are a far cry from the menstrual taboos we have typically internalised as part of western culture.

Within the context of the invisibilisation and stigmatisation of periods that stubbornly endures in our society, then, the swirling, brilliant forms of Renate Kordon’s period pictures manage to be subtly yet deeply subversive: theirs is a playful, joyous refusal to cow to the imposition of shame. Embedded within them is a contagious glee, a rejoicing in the moods and surging energies, and a provocative delight taken in tumbling and overturning inhibitions and strictures by gently but firmly ridiculing centuries of absurd and humiliating patriarchal notions. These creations explode with vivacity, in themselves refuting any kind of suggestion that menstruation is a time of weakened productivity; or that it is nothing but a physical phenomenon that is best hidden and minimised, at most quietly tolerated.

As in so much of Renate Kordon’s work, these are images that open the door to a secret dimension but do not seek to explain or unravel it for us. We are given the scope to find our own way through. In a diary written during a stay in Paris at the same time as she was creating the period pictures, the artist writes: “It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the most important thing is to find your own interpretation of reality. To voice your own opinion and stand by it.” Shifting Colours of the Mind represent not only her interpretation of reality but also extend an invitation to us viewers to find our own interpretation of reality, our own opinion felt from the heart, and to stand by it, whatever tradition or society might tell us to think. If we choose to be open, these pictures are offering us, with a playful wink of the eye, a liberation from learned inhibitions and a taste of the Lebensfreude that comes with that freedom.

The series Shifting Colours of the Mind finishes with a picture dated 26.6.1982, its title Im Garten der Liebe blühen wieder die Rosen: In the Garden of Love, the Roses are Blooming Again, referencing an ancient Middle Eastern expression for menstruation that is infused with respect and esteem. Here the extensive set of drawings draws to an end - but the blooming of the roses and the returning energies of nature will continue, unstoppable.

KATE HOWLETT-JONES

born 1971, British text artist. Master of Arts in French and Russian from the University of Oxford.
Her work is a dialogue between writing and spatial installation with language and text as material. >>>

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Daniela Jauk, text for Renate Kordon's watercolour-series Shifting Colours of the Mind, January 2018...

Women of the 21st century have an average of about 450 periods in their lifespan, which is about three times as many as hunters and gatherers had before primaeval times, whose menstruation started later due to diet and living environment and who also spent more years pregnant and/or breastfeeding on average. It's more accurate to say "menstruators," as there are many women who don't menstruate, who don't want to menstruate (and take rule-busting medication), and also menstruators who weren't born "female" (Society for Menstrual Cycle Research 2016). The personal stories of the first period that Renate Kordon has collected here bear witness to the difficulty and speechlessness that the period of menstruation initially meant for many women. However, Renate Kordon also reveals funny and strengthening reminders of the period. It is often the social structure, not the period itself, that makes monthly bleeding so uncomfortable: the social devaluation of menstruation in patriarchy, the association with being dirty, being unclean, and the (until very recently) lack of hygiene products that encourage you to bleed and are also healthy for women's bodies (chlorine-bleached tampons, for example, do not belong in this category). As Gloria Steinem noted in a satirical piece for Ms. Magazine back in 1978, if men could menstruate, all this would potentially be very different. Among other things, men would brag about how long and how often they can menstruate, pads and tampons would be free, period pains would be well researched, statistics would show that athletes perform at their best while they bleed, and right-wing politicians would argue that blood is God's sign of their superiority (Steinem 1978).

Renate Kordon contrasts the non-naming and shaming with satire, love and art by loudly and vividly celebrating and transforming her own menstrual experiences with colors and forms. She maps her condition monthly, which was not always pleasant for her either. In Renate Kordon's Shifting Colours of the Mind between 1980 and 1982, she created around 200 watercolors and drawings are created in which she transforms "discomfort" into joy, color and light. She uses her artistic expression therapeutically to paint against cramps and mood swings and to use the period as a source of creativity and productivity. This is pioneering work in its time. Outstanding is the variety of forms and shapes of the “regelrechten Bilder” (note: a German word play insinuating “Regel” – the word for period; but directly translating into engl. proper, regular) " which - like the period itself - are always a bit different and new every time. For Renate Kordon, the rule actually makes everything new by visually formulating her emotions in a variety of bodies and non-bodies each month. Here the period becomes a cornucopia of arrangements, characters, faces, figures, apparitions and magical beings.

The period has been normalized and more discussed over the last few years. She made the cover of Newsweek in April 2016 (Cover Story,”There Will be Blood. Get Over It.”), the first Handbook of Critical Menstrual Studies is forthcoming (Palgrave Publishers), My Little Red Book by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, in which the then 18-year-old collects rule stories from around the world, made it onto the New York Times bestseller list in 2009. In the fall of 2015, Kiran Gandhi aka Madame Gandhi made headlines around the world for successfully running the London marathon “bleeding free”. Various platforms are now committed to sustainable and pain-free periods, and feminist startups are presenting new standard products; think of the abundance of different menstrual cups, some of which can already be connected to the smartphone, reusable pads made of wonderfully colourful and soft fabrics, comfortable panties with built-in absorbent vagina pads, etc.

It is striking and noteworthy that most menstrual activists are white and refer to western menstrual contexts. However, this should not hide the fact that menstrual hygiene is still a significant problem worldwide. In some countries (e.g. India and Nepal), women's freedom of movement during their period is severely restricted, and millions of women do not have access to sanitary facilities equipped with soap and/or water. As a result, they cannot pursue monthly hygiene in safety and privacy. Research in Africa, for example, has shown that up to 47% of girls reported missing school at least once a month due to uncontrolled pain or inability to change their pads at school (Burt et al. 2016). In addition, the period is a forgotten challenge for an estimated 30 million women who are currently fleeing and/or displaced worldwide. They have no access to sanitary facilities and hygiene supplies, must change pads and tampons in public in refugee camps, and are increasingly exposed to sexualised violence (Cohen 2017). It is essential to provide information and education for women and girls (who are quite scared of their first period) and inform men about menstrual hygiene to deconstruct the global menstrual stigma permanently.

The period has also been an issue in art since the 1970s. In recent years, for example, Tamara Wyndham, Zanele Muholi, Ingrid Berthon-Moine, JenLewis and May Ling have been working on some projects with period blood themselves. On the other hand, Renate Kordon does not use the "monthly call" as actual material for the creation but as inspiration and celebration of creative power that springs from the infinite feminine. She relates in form and colour to her own embodied experience of the menstruation she experiences at the time of creation. Renate Kordon celebrates her bleeding with her designs and figures that are so optimistic and inviting in bold colours. They don't hide; the bodies, shapes, colours and movements dance across the paper and into life and celebrate the time of menstruation with ease and a laugh. And sometimes an unmistakable growl.

With this series Shifting Colours of the Mind Renate Kordon is a menstrual activist with charm, strength and wit. She is also a feminist visionary and pioneer because these watercolours and drawings were created at the beginning of the ’80s when the period was not (yet) “en vogue”. It cannot be nested in a box, as Bobel (2010) tried to do for American menstrual activists and artists. She divides period activists into feminist-spiritualists and radical menstruation activists; Renate Kordon nonchalantly evades categorisation as an artist. Renate Kordon's imagery is colourful and powerful as usual, sometimes painful and tense, and maybe also energetically annoying; in any case, they stem from the centre and heart, inspiring and liberating for all of us.

References
Bobel, C. (2010). New blood: Third-wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. Rutgers University Press.
Update 2023: It has been published as an open-access book; see Bobel et al. (2020).

Bobel, Chris, Inga T. Winkler, Breanne Fahs, Katie Ann Hasson, Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, and Tomi-Ann Roberts, eds. 2020. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. Singapore: Springer.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/10.1007/978-981-15-0614-7

Burt, Z., Nelson K., Rayun, I. 2016. Towards Gender Equality through Sanitation Access. UN Women discussion paper series Nr.16. http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2016/towards-gender-equality-through-sanitation.pdf?la=en&vs=5952

Cohen, R. 2017. “How Women And Girls Cope With Getting Their Periods In Refugee Camps.” Reuters Health 11/07/2017. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-women-and-girls-cope-with-getting-their-periods-in-refugee-camps_us_5a01f14be4b04e96f0c5c446

Kauder Nalebuff , R. 2009. My Little Red Book. www.mylittleredbook.net/

Steinem, G. 1978 “If Men Could Menstruate” first published in 1978 in Ms. Magazine
https://ww3.haverford.edu/psychology/ddavis/p109g/steinem.menstruate.html

Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. 2016. The Menstrual Cycle: A Feminist Lifespan Perspective.
http://www.menstruationresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/fact_4-2011-menstruation.pdf


DANIELA JAUK

Ph.D., University of Akron, M.A. in Sociology, University of Graz, Austria. Social worker in feminist contexts and Independent Women’s Representative of the City Council Graz.
Since Fall 2019, assistant professor for Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Akron, Ohio and Certified Clinical Sociological Practitioner. Her research interest is gardening in incarcerated settings, women in the criminal (in)justice system, and qualitative methods. >>>