Home > 2018 Exhibition
Blood Speaks: A Ritual of Exile
“Blood Speaks: A Ritual of Exile” is a transmedia project that investigates the causes and the consequences of normalized violence against women in Nepal. The origin of this violence is the impurity of a woman’s menstrual blood. Hidden, under reported and unresolved, these women are untouchable. Central to this story is the ritual of ‘chaupadi’ in Nepal in which girls and women are forced to endure an exile in rudimentary shelters, many barely sufficient for animals, while they are menstruating. During this menstrual exile women are often abused, bitten by snakes, raped and even murdered.
Through video content, VR, photographs, projections and interviews, “Blood Speaks” cracks open the veil of silence and shame experienced by women. It doesn’t seek to just inform, it seeks to immerse audiences in a hidden world, making them bear witness to the injustice of this practice.
Poulomi Basu
Poulomi Basu (1983, Kolkata, India) is an Indian storyteller, artist and activist. Her work explores the way in which the formation of identity becomes entwined with geopolitics, revealing the hidden power structures buried deep within our societies.
Poulomi was featured alongside Hillary Clinton as one of the ‘Amazing women from around the world giving their best advice’ by Refinery29.