Blutclip

Blutclip

Pipilotti Rist

I have gone through "first menstruation" like my mom did, and her mom, and on and on. It’s very personal, secretive and even magical. As a male artist, Pipilotti Rist's interpretation of a girl experiencing her first period was intriguing. I could relate myself easily of a young girl’s understanding of her sexuality, unsettling hormone flow and adolescence period in the video.

A lot of times blood reminds me of death, pain or fear. However blood from menstruation means birth and life. Two very distinctive ideas happen in one occasion, and it happens monthly. When Rist expressed this idea with blood dripping everywhere on girl’s body, I felt uncomfortable. But at the same time, I felt relaxation that I wasn’t the only one who felt scared and weird about my first period experience.
In the video, part where girl’s body is spinning and planets flashing through on the black space really represented every girl’s encounter as becoming a women. Unsettling, chaotic and confusing.

Death of a girl, reborn as a woman. I’m just stunned how Rist captured that moments that cannot be shared because it is so sensitive. And he is a guy – biologically differently structured, testosterone filled body. I wonder I Rist would reinterpret a boy’s puberty process.