Twenty-eight different twenty-four hour days is a performance piece speaking about the conditioned disconnect from our menstruating bodies and the wisdom of its cyclical nature. Despite societal shame, secrecy and stigmas around menstruation diminishing, the knock on effect we still face is the lack of understanding and connection to our bodies’ nature, not only whilst we bleed, but in all phases of our 28 day cycle.

For too long we have been attempting to conform our cyclical nature to the linear system we live in. In terms of the ‘linear’ system, I refer to the linearity of how our society runs. Running in repeating singular 24 hour days, where we are expected to perform the same each day. The same productivity, the same energy, the same emotional state. This aligns for the biologically male hormonal body, however, our endocrine system has on average 28 different 24 hour days. For too long we have been taught our bodies are disruptive to our ‘linear’ enforced lives. An inconvenience to ourselves and to those around us. An attribute we’ve turned against rather than towards. No longer am I interested in performing and contorting my nature to match the patriarchal and capitalist structures which were never designed in our favour to begin with. So through this reclamation of my own nature, I urge us all to return to the wisdom and the authentic ways of our bodies.

The key parameter I set for this performance was to engage with the public space, allowing my body to be confronted with these rhythmic tensions. As such, I began to look for public spaces that had their own cycles and rhythms. Coincidentally, I realised the London Underground Circle Line exactly mirrors our 28 day hormonal cycle as it loops around 28 stops from Edgware Road Station back around to Edgware Road station. Thus leading me to develop the concept for my piece as follows:

I documented two performances unfolding over a singular loop from Edgware Road back to Edgware Road Station, each with a different action. In the first film restrict my body and remain in the same position for the entirety. In the second film my body will lead, engaging with the tube carriage and changing position at each stop in alignment with the different phases of the menstrual cycle. The two films together will create a dialogue between the expectations imposed on our bodies and the authentic, natural expression of our bodies.