Blood Speaks. Red. The color of love, marriage, purity and sin. A Ritual of Exile, by Indian storyteller and activist Poulomi Basu, is an immersive installation that investigates the causes and consequences of normalized violence against women. Perpetrated under the guise of Hindu tradition, the cause of this violence is the impurity of a woman’s menstrual blood. Hidden, under-reported and unresolved, these women are untouchable and, as a result, this violence takes the form of ‘exiles’ which keeps menstruation shrouded in mystery and taboo.
Combining photography, virtual reality (VR) and immersive projections, this installation places the audience inside the complex and endlessly repeating the cycle of abuse faced by the women forced into such exiles. Centred around the ritual of Chhaupadi, in which menstruating girls and women must live in huts barely fit for animals, the audience is taken on a journey so that they may come to understand the isolation, hardship and claustrophobia that the women must endure during their exile.
Poulomi Basu, A ritual of exile
24 March – 23 April 2017
Cathedral Green
Derby
United Kingdom
