Red Tents II

2020 Mickleham, Surrey.

My very first public artwork was in March 2003.  It comprised 28 illuminated red tents sited on a hillside, over three days and nights on a new moon. The work was commissioned for International Women’s Day. The piece examined the taboo of menstruation.

The tents had no openings; the internal world of the piece remained private. Perhaps that was a reflection of my own self at the time, a young mother.

Seventeen years later, I wanted to remake the piece. I stripped the tents bare, with just their frames illuminated, glowing red in the dark, a majestic rawness within the encampment, nothing to hide. If you looked for too long, they would burn your eyes.

This time I showed the piece on a different hilltop, on a waxing moon, marking being very close to the end of a cycle. The piece was filmed from dusk till dawn using a drone, time-lapse film and photography.