- left: 30 x 69 x 7 cm
- right: 49 x 75 x 7 cm
- dyed fabric, epoxy resin
The series "The Absent Referent" refers to Carol J. Adams' concept of the
"absent referent," which describes how physicality and violence must be made invisible
for consumption and social normalization to be possible—both in the consumption of non-human animals—meat—and in the objectification of
bodies read as female.
According to this logic, the body should disappear or remain invisible, clean,
and controllable. Menstruation, however, constantly points to a body
that eludes this control. Perhaps precisely for this reason, it has historically
been repeatedly associated with disgust or danger—as it breaks through patriarchal notions of
control, "purity," and "femininity," serving as a projection of patriarchal
fears of feminized physicality and loss of control.
