Blood in (and as) Art

As intriguing as it is repulsive, blood has been used to illustrate ritual sacrifices, religious scenes, wars, diseases, menstruation, and human madness. The use of this fluid is a way to provoke compassion, disgust, fear, or indignation—always strong emotions that bring the audience to face human tragedies. In our time, blood seems to have lost its sacred quality, as mass media and television expose us to bloody images daily. It is then interesting to look at how contemporary artists have used it to address political and cultural issues.

HIV/AIDS: Raising Awareness

The AIDS/HIV epidemic emerged in the 1970s and primarily impacted already marginalized people, especially the gay community. This fueled conservative arguments against homosexuality and hindered the progress of LGBTQIA+ rights. To commemorate this dark period, American artist Jordan Eagles created Illuminations. This immersive installation features blood enclosed in plexiglass and projected onto walls using retro projectors. The work not only conveys a powerful message, but is also visually stunning.

Eagles began exploring the aesthetics and ethics of blood in the late 1990s. While most of his artworks are made with purchased blood from slaughterhouses, he sometimes uses human blood donated from the queer community, as in his work titled Blood Mirror. By doing this, he protests for fair blood donation policies, which is still problematic in numerous countries, and the HIV/AIDS crisis played a big part in the prejudice.

American photographer Andres Serrano addressed similar issues in his series Bodily Fluids, created between 1986 and 1990. Utilizing predominantly blood and semen, he creatively explores the dual nature of these human fluids: while blood can save lives through transfusion, and sperm can create life through conception, they can also pose fatal risks if infected. Through these raw and provocative representations, the artist challenges the fundamental cycle of life and death.

Breaking the Taboo of Menstruation

Throughout history, menstruation has been used to justify the oppression of women. Unable to control their blood, women were often seen as victims of their bodies rather than owners of them. Moreover, many religious traditions have considered menstrual blood impure, leading to the exclusion of women from worship during their periods.

With the rise of feminism, women artists are transforming the perception of menstruation from a sign of weakness into a source of power. A prominent figure in this movement is Gina Pane, a French body art performer. For the action “Autoportrait(s),” presented at the Galerie Stadler in Paris in January 1973, she showcased Une semaine de mon sang menstruel (“A Week of My Menstrual Blood”). This work consisted of seven plastic boxes containing cotton cloth soaked with her menstrual blood. For Pane, the piece was a straightforward way to reclaim her intimacy. This artwork is linked to a performance in which she cut her lips from the inside, drawing a parallel between the lips of the face and those of the vagina. It also makes a statement about the distinction between the biological body—producing periods—and the political body—advocating for feminist convictions.

Ridiculing the objectification of women, performer Christen Clifford created a remake of Yves Klein’s The Monotone Symphony as part of her project I Want Your Blood: The Menstrual Symphony. Using menstrual blood from people of all genders, three male performers were painted and then used as brushes. Beyond the obvious reversal of gender roles, this piece addresses reproductive rights, reminding the audience that feminism is still fighting for the same women’s rights over their bodies as it was at the beginning of the movement.

Beginning with menstruation, feminist artists use blood to explore deeper issues of women’s oppression. For example, in their series Isilumo Siyaluma (“Period Pains”) from 2011, South African artist Zenele Muholi uses their menstrual blood to highlight issues of sexual violence against women, specifically the “curative rape” of lesbians.

Violence

Even though blood is one of our most fundamental components as beings, it is culturally associated with violence and war. Consequently, some activists and artists have used blood as a medium for protest. The committed performer Regina José Galindo, whose work straddles the line between art and protest, has utilized blood in several of her performances. One of her most recognized works is probably ¿Quién Puede Borrar las Huellas? (“Who Can Erase the Traces?”) from 2003.

In this performance, she walked from the Constitutional Court to the National Palace of Guatemala with her feet covered in human blood, leaving red footprints on the street. This artwork was created in memory of the victims of the Guatemalan civil war and as a protest against one of the presidential candidates at that time, Efraín Ríos Montt, who played a significant role in the violence.

This quite recent piece was inspired by and references numerous blood performances protesting political regimes.

In Lips of Thomas, realized in 1975, Marina Abramović denounced the violence of the Yugoslav regime by carving a pentagram, on her naked stomach. With this action, she also denounced the religious exclusionary politics of Tito’s system as the physical torture endured by his opponents.

In a more satirical vein, Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu created an installation for the Guggenheim Museum in New York featuring an industrial robot arm containing a blood-like fluid within a predetermined area. Can’t Help Myself explores the evolving relationship and dependency between humans and machines, confronting the viewer’s morbid curiosity through the unsettling satisfaction of observing the artwork. It also critiques the absurdity of border zones and the resulting violence. Territorial disputes have been a source of conflict throughout history, and with ongoing migration issues, little has changed. The repetitive movements of the robot illustrate the cyclical nature of human history.

Blood in contemporary art is an expansive subject, one that we have only just begun to explore. It has been used across nearly every artistic medium, from painting to installation, representing everything from violence to the sacred. By examining the use of blood in modern artworks, we can observe how our perceptions of it have evolved—or perhaps not. Indeed, we still seem to be less shocked by images of bloody wars than by images of bloody panties.