Maria Benedita Portugal
O Cozinheiro Prático brooch
Piece created for Challenge 2022 Jewelry and Literature
Materials painted brass, paper (book), watercolor, steel
Size 120x100x40mm
For several generations, the books recommended for girls and women were those on etiquette and dressmaking.
Simone de Beauvoir published “The Second Sex” at the same time that our grandmothers were gifted with them and read maximalist novels on the sly.
With this work Maria Benedita wants to highlight the subject of menstruation, to destroy its myths and ideas that it is something dirty. And also to remind that even nowadays menstrual hygiene is not accessible to all girls and women.
So let's stain the maximalist books of our grandmothers' time with "Blood not generated by violence”.
