This is the second book in a body of work, titled PRIMORDIAL COOCH. It was created and printed while doing a mini-residency/hangout at Extrapool/Knust in Nijmegen, Netherlands, in December 2016. It’s a mini (a single sheet of paper that folds into a book) celebrating feminine/vaginal/fertility representations, throughout time and different cultures. It was birthed from the toxic U.S. political climate of this past election and all the hatred that came spewing from it.
While there is much work to be done in the coming years, after the election I needed to tap into some GODDESS/EARTH energies and charge up for the battles to come. To remember where we all have come from, no matter what color our skin is, what nationality we are, or how we identify sexually (only a few of the many ways we are taught to separate ourselves from one another). We all spent months in utero and have a common “home,” a place known as the “COOCH!” Used here as a broad sweeping word for all things feminine + for female reproductive organs, the COOCH used to be considered all powerful and something that people used to celebrate, rather than denigrate.
None of the issues are new—the election brought everything to the surface, which is equally a curse, and a blessing so we can finally confront things collectively. In many ways we have all become desensitized through the constant barrage of media + our personal comforts—but it’s time to call on the GODDESS and then gear up for this darkness-before-the-dawn era. To do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of everyone who isn’t white/straight/male/hateful and also, to protect the EARTH, whom we have severely neglected. This second book in the series is a meditation on all that—a physical manifestation of hope for positive change and more love in this seemingly sick society that we live in. (This is the short, quick + dirty summation of something I think about tooooo much…)
Through my years of doing Risograph printing, I’ve become friends with the folks who are part of Extrapool (a longstanding artist space), who also run Knust Press, a world renown Risograph studio. I was able to work with them and use their A2 machine, which prints a whopping 16.5" X 23.4,“ compared to my machine that prints as large as 8.5” X 14.“ It was a joy to make this limited edition mini with them, which is also double sided—on the reverse side, there is a full size poster as well. - C. Paquita