Saba Taj created this work for the Calla Campaign art exhibition titled "(In)visible Organ," which was held in the spring of 2019 at Duke University. The interactive, multimedia exhibit drew together a diverse group of artists whose works reflected on women’s bodies and reproductive health.
The format of Taj's piece references a package of birth control pills and tells the story of a 28-day menstrual cycle. Each image is titled individually and contributes a line to a poem that was inspired by these cyclical transformations.
- consecrated
- fingers pluck
- an oozing bloom from the follicle
- and spin stones
- into pearls of yolk and archive.
- a prophecy dew-dropped through softly parted lips
- may become plethora
- or disband into a slur of potential.
- mapped into the spaces between our molecules
- strands of blood ciphers
- unravel into moments of lush,
- of thickening,
- of catching air beneath fresh sheets.
- this body has its own gravities.
- this body is tender and soaking wet inside.
- this body is a keeper of time
- and secrets.
- alive,
- cyclic,
- inevitable.
- this passage is adorned
- with the muscle memory of eels and orchids.
- slipping through this gateway between worlds,
- there is blood.
- an iteration ripened into clot
- leaving silhouettes of pressed flowers
- imprinted on panty-lines
- as a way to remember.
