Alina Bliumis
“First, there is the old truth that “In the beginning is the body,” with its desires, its powers, its manifold forms of resistance to exploitation. As is often recognized, there is no social change, no cultural or political innovation that is not expressed through the body, no economic practice that is not applied to it.’
- Beyond the Periphery of the Skin,Silvia Federici, 2020
Alina Bliumis’ Fertility series, opening at Hofudstodin in Reykjavík, Iceland on August 20th, forms the second chapter to Bliumis’ Plant Parenthood paintings, which premiered in a solo exhibition held at SITUATIONS, NYC (2023), and were subsequently included in a group exhibition titled Supra Nature at Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris.
For this exhibition, Bliumis renders various plants which have been used as folk remedies throughout history to aid in pregnancy, such as Red Clover and Maca, in watercolor pencil and washes on wood panels and held within artist-made velvet frames. The artist portrays her subjects in a manner that emphasizes and exaggerates their inherent sensuality, drawing parallels between human and botanical reproductive anatomy.
While the flora depicted in her previous Plant Parenthood series are known to have been used in various folk medicines to terminate pregnancies, in this chapter, Bliumis continues her research into the history of women using herbal medicine aimed at increasing fertility. Both series underscore that, regardless of legal restrictions and social pressures, women across cultures have and will continue to find methods to maintain agency over their bodies and reproductive decisions. The desire for motherhood and abortion may initially seem like opposing concepts, yet the core principle shared in both Fertility and Plant Parenthood is the belief in a person’s choice over their own body and health.
Before the professionalization of medicine transferred power over pregnancy, labor, contraception, and abortion care from pregnant people and midwives to male doctors, natural fertility aids and herbal abortifacients were widely used as family planning methods. In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, for example, fetuses were regarded as part of women’s bodies, and their nourishment or disposal therefore was the prerogative of the pregnant person. In large part, these herbal rituals have been shielded from the gaze of patriarchal eyes.
Bliumis’ paintings mirror the work of our foremothers who used botanicals as medicine. Without context, a viewer might only see flowers, but with knowledge, the viewer begins to understand the power and self-determination preserved by these plants.
images:
Plant Parenthood, Fertility Flowers series, 2023
watercolor of wood panel, artist’s velvet frame
17.5x13.5x1.5 In
Each
