CASTING SUN AND OXYGEN FOR A COLLECTIVE REBIRTH (2024)
Imprinting new qualities and sacredness of all beings on the fabric of the “humanity-in-becoming”.
Casting Sun and Oxygen for a Collective Rebirth is a body casting performance by Jatun Risba that was premiered at the opening of the exhibition Terra incognita: Jatun Risba, Ivana Filip and Nikolina Butorac, curated by Marta Sirotich at Galerija O.K. in Rijeka, Croatia on the 29th of November 2024. The artist used menstrual blood and liquid chlorophyll to produce two large body prints on incontinence sheets. Menstrual blood was applied to the erogenous zones of the body (torso, face, genitals, and buttocks), while chlorophyll was poured over the limbs and fingers. Eastern esoteric wisdom traditions regard menstrual blood as the energy of the sun, while chlorophyll symbolizes the essence of plant life and oxygen on Earth. In light of this, the artwork aims to cast a spell for collective spiritual empowerment and healing.
STATEMENT ABOUT THE WORK
Risba, who has transcended a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis and lived through experiences of sexual abuse and artistic boycotting, uses their naked body to create testimonies that outline and dismantle the narratives of sexual violence, discrimination, and oppression faced by women, queer, non-normative, and crip bodies.
By dignifiedly revealing and marking their secret, sacred organs with menstrual blood—a substance of special importance in Risba’s journey of holistic self-healing—the artist creates a situation of mirroring in which audiences can witness and recognize their own vulnerability, innate purity and basic goodness, alongside their capacity for (self-)care and their responsibility to one another and the environment.
This act of inscription challenges Western Christian traditions of original sin, female subjugation, and psychological self-hatred, fostering a return to Eastern concepts of loving-kindness, divine embodiment, and enlightened societies. Through a performative casting process with two of Earth’s essential life-giving nectars, the artist celebrates the inseparability of emptiness and compassionate awareness.
This work builds on Risba’s recent artistic research on the similarities between human (menstrual) blood and chlorophyll. This research, commissioned by Schmiede Hallein Akademie in 2023, will be published in the forthcoming YslandBook: Blood.
