10th - 18th December
It was time to plan how my workshop was actually going to take place. I decided I would do it with 2 men and 2 women to demonstrate how the workshop would take place.
The workshop would ideally take place in Loni, India with participants from the ages of 9–13.
In person session -
I selected 4 people from India, who were studying in UAL with me, but not from MA: UX, as LCC had a policy of not allowing visitors in the school due to COVID. I arranged the studio to accommodate them. However, one member had to cancel as he was exhibiting signs of the flu. I could not get anyone to fill in for him on a short notice so I went ahead with conducting the workshop with three people.
Stage 1
I set the scene by telling them that they were in the times of Mahabharat. Kunti was their friend since childhood. Then I provided them with the material for the masks and asked them to start building their character.
This was a particularly interesting stage. They first went through all the material and decided the characteristics of the person they were going to make. The most beautiful part of it was that all the characters they chose to make were made to take a social stand in themselves.
Participant 1 made a mask with was half-woman, half-man and named them Kinnari.
Participant 2 made a goddess of beauty, which had a dark skin color and the name was Arunaputri.
Participant 3 made a mask which was a storyteller named Chitrarupi. He knew all the stories and told the king about them. He could paint a picture just with his words.
They also wanted to create their own elements, so they drew on and broke a few pieces which I had provided them. This was a key element as it showed that they were really embodying the character.
After the characters were made, they were asked to describe their characters and tell us a story about them.
Each person had embodied the character and was also quite comfortable being in that role as they were making jokes and laughing with each other all the while assuming the role of the character.
Note : Participants also started sharing other mythological stories while making their characters. This was an important point as it shows how much mythology is ingrained in the culture.
Stage 2
The next stage was reading the book. One by one the participants had to read the story. The first activity to do was to first observe and then draw a shape of the uterus like their character would draw it.
Meaning of the poem-
The uterus is the most beautiful part of the body who can put any one in a trance as it is so mesmerising.
Participant 1 drew the reproductive system -half of a woman, half of a man.
Participant 3 chose not to draw the uterus rather tell a story about it as that was true to their character.
Participant 2 drew the uterus as a flower pot with flowers of different colors.
They were supposed to explain their drawings and talk to each other about the uterus. This turned out to be a very seamless process. Participant 2 also said, “Thank god i’m wearing a mask, otherwise I would not have been able to say ‘vagina’ as a word.”
As the story progressed, the second activity was to sing a mantra in different styles of Indian music. Each participant had to sing different lines in different styles.
The third and final task was to look at the vagina artifact which was marred with blood. The reaction which I got even shocked me as they did not feel ashamed to touch the artifact even when I had told them that it was blood.
They started observing the vagina and even discussed the different patterns of the blood.
This was the end of the session.
Compilation of the whole workshop -
Feedback from the in person session
They really enjoyed the session and being different characters for a while. I had informed them at the start that the workshop was meant to be help in an educational setting but they suggested that it can be help for any age group who would be interested. They did not think that teenagers would be aversed to the idea of unlearning taboos and learning from a fun source.
Embodying their character, the participants were comfortable enough to talk about taboo topics which were not related to menstruation as well.
Takeaways
The whole project was an exploration of how I could start conversations about menstruation without having people feel ashamed about it. I felt glad that I could motivate at least a small audience to do that.
The next step would be contacting an NGO in India which deals with these topics and getting them to implement this in schools. I am already in touch with ‘Period of sharing’ in Mumbai and hope they implement it soon.
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