Description

There are few taboos left in western culture but the use of human flesh in art is perhaps one of them and the human placenta especially so.

Yet many cultures around the world celebrate the symbolism of the placenta and revere it for its life giving properties. The Navajo Indians, New Zealand Maoris and Bolivian Aymara bury it in order to bring fertility to their tribe or good fortune to the child. In Vietnam and China the mothers eat it to improve the quality of their breast milk.

For the artist Jo Holland, who works with donated human placentas, using them in her art is in fact a celebration of the beauty found in nature. In her series "Combined Unity" Jo has used placentas given to her by friends and, in one case, a stranger she met in the gym. Dissecting them in her studio Jo places the tissue on a glass plate and after allowing them to settle in the fridge she paints into the placenta complimenting and contrasting the original pigments. In the darkroom she then makes a positive print.

What Jo produces is far removed from the unformed mass of blood and tissue that was given to her; she transforms it to create images of real beauty.