The Other Side of Joy

“If I am like this for two weeks a month is that who I am?” This particular sentence immediately captured my attention, I was browsing through a Google search for severe premenstrual syndrome and had just come across a condition called PMDD (Premenstrual-Dysphoric-Disorder). I immediately recognised my self in most of the descriptions of symptoms, in the little information I could find and in the words of other women going through a similar struggle. As I began making sense of what I have been going through, I felt compelled to create a body of work that would capture the fragility of these moments. I intended to make work that is unmistakably feminine and that strives for beautiful aesthetic without apology, to show that vulnerability can also be a strength, other than a cause of embarrassment and distress. Through a series of self portraits, conceptual still lifes and drawing directly on my personal experience, this series explores how hormonal shifts can affect women’s mental and physical health.