Urška Preis / BÔLI

The black-and-white photogram images of the author’s menstruation on a snow-white cloth record (female*) pain that has been inaudible, unwritten, and undocumented throughout history. The applied photosensitive coating reveals the author’s zealous painting on canvas, which, employing the materiality of menstrual colour, overturns the perceived masculinity of abstract expressionism, and artistic photograms (here we refer to at the notion of art history of rayographs by Man Ray and Schadographs by Christian Schad). The works show, in a modern way, the inaudible and invisible record of women’s* pain and in parallel, with the accompanying sound, give voice where it was taken, namely in the field of (mental) health, where women’s* anger led by the captivity in an oppressive society, was too often described as hysteria.

In the book  HURTS (BÔLI), the author questions the limitations of the photographic medium, including photographic and sculptural works, photographs (author’s note: preisograms) and associative analogue photography, which references the artist’s research into her own conceptions of zoe, bios and psyche — biology, society and the inner thought.

Limited edition of 200 copies.

Language: Slovenian, English
Size: 21.5 x 26 cm, 60 pages
Binding: hardcover 
Publisher: Zavod Artard, 2022