Z-STACK / PERIOD BRAIN

2024-2025

Z-stack and Period Brain engage cellular imaging as a process of accumulation, drawing on microscopy techniques in which multiple focal planes are layered to produce time lapse sequences, in both material and digital form. Vision is constructed through successive slices, assembling depth from discrete strata. What appears continuous is revealed as multiple temporal and material layers.

The work unfolds across two interconnected forms. Z-stack is a diptych of fraternal twin flip books. The larger volume is die-cut through its stack to create a cavity that houses a glass petri dish containing a bioprinted organ, embedding living matter within the structure of the image. The smaller flip book is assembled from the die-cut castoffs, forming a circular, hand-held object that allows viewers to reconstruct the time-lapse sequence through touch and manipulation. Period Brain translates the same image stack into a time-lapse animation, extending the stacking process into duration. The video renders cellular transformation as continuous motion, in contrast to the tactile sequencing of the flip books. This film captures the live cellular unfolding of primary tissue explanted directly from a menstrual cup and cultured in N2B27 medium with murine FGF and EGF for 44 hours. Under 40x magnification, time-lapse microscopy reveals the emergence of dendritic protrusions—evidence of early neuronal differentiation—rendering the so-called “period brain” not as myth, but as material intelligence. Produced during an artist research residency at Cultivamos Cultura (PT) in partnership with the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, uLisboa, this work provocatively feminizes the sterile field of biotech. It invites viewers to witness regeneration as a menstrual praxis—subverting bioengineering norms through a bleeding, thinking dish.

Period Brain has been exhibited as part of Metamorphosis at Ectopia Lab, where it was featured as the cover image for the exhibition catalogue and poster, and presented alongside a documentary on the artist’s work at the Graça Lab. The video was also featured in Labocine’s MICROGRAPHIA issue. Z-stack was exhibited as part of Barely 50 at Cultivamos Cultura, São Luís, Portugal.

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Materials: Die-cut printed mylar, ink, sheet acrylic with fixtures, glass petri dish, gelatin-alginate bioprint, menstrual blood, gel wax, chalk pencil, brass screw pins, and video.