Gudrun Hasle: Blood Fascination

“As a form of postmodern Gothic, youth are rolling into everything from the Twilight saga to the zombie series Walking Dead.”

I wanted to look back to the difficult years of youth. A time where one is trying to look away from their parents and create a personal identity. I went through this process, like everyone else, but not without problems. I did damage to myself since I was 12 years old until I grew up. And this became a catalyst for this exhibition, where I am exploring the fascination of blood in the visual arts and culture. That way, I would like to focus on youth subcultures, which paradoxically are popular cultures.
20% of youngsters are engaging in self harm during their adolescence. At the same time, there has been in recent years a growing fascination with vampires, zombies, forensics, apocalypse and death in youth literature, computer games, movies and TV. As a form of postmodern Gothic, youth are rolling into everything from the Twilight saga to the zombie series Walking Dead.

Blood as a motif and theme has always fascinated me. It is distributed in church every Sunday, as a symbol of the Divine. It is life sustaining, but also carries diseases. It signals pain, causes fear and repels. It is a symbol of both life and death.

With this in mind, I wanted to create a space where I, through my own story, can tell a general social history, which is not necessarily about me, but about the viewer. In this context, self-injury should not be perceived as a shocking, youthful provocation, but as a ‘means of expression’ in a confusing world. In this way, I hope that the taboo surrounding self-harm ultimately disappears.

Gudrun Hasle: Overruling Pain is on view until September 22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark