Blood Sisters, 4K, 1'00 excerpt (original 9'00)
Blood Sisters (2020) is a collaborative video work made with the artist Josefin Arnell in Groningen, Netherlands. The location was used as a site to research into the active student fraternities present in the city. We were particularly drawn to the traditional hazing rituals, using them as a loose starting point to create a fictional initiation ceremony for four older females. Hazing rituals often involve forcing new members into humiliating acts and is a technique used by the fraternities to strengthen group cohesion and identity. The work took an interest in these rituals and a number of corresponding topics, including the abject physicality of a woman’s body, conformity, social pressure, age and agency. The work playfully explores power, humiliation and hierarchies in relation to fear in public space, focusing on shame as a way to control and manipulate behaviour.
Produced with Stichting SIGN (with the additional support of Research Group Image in Context Hanze UAS Groningen & DesignArbeid, Amsterdam).