Natural Breeding Machine

Natural Breeding Machine tells the story of a woman’s reproductive life. It is a story of society’s expectations and the loss of power over one’s own body. The collection is presented in a film form that is shot in five chapters, starting from adolescence, ending at birth, taking inspiration from body horror. The collection explores the way how, under patriarchy, the female body has been fetishised for its fragility, exploited for its perceived weakness, punished for its power to seduce, and manipulated for its ability to create labour.

• The state of world politics continues to shock me. I am afraid that we are in the wake of a modern witch hunt. We might not be burned at the stake anymore, but our rights and bodies are under constant attack, and the progress seems to have stagnated and is moving backwards. Through my collection, I am taking a stand, a stand for reproductive rights, a stand for human rights.

Inspiration for the techniques used in the collection came from body restrictions and grotesque aesthetics, returning to the body horror film tropes. The body is bound by corset lacings, and the protruding body is created by paddings and bonings, inspired by historical garments that were used to restrict women’s everyday life, re-imagined into a deformed body.

• The aesthetics were inspired by body horror films, specifically the ones with underlying themes of giving birth. I also found a lot of inspiration from the special effects, especially the handmade special effects that we can find in older films, giving an aesthetic of funny and gore mixed together.

Contact information:

Nilla Heikkilä

nilla.heikkila@aalto.fi

+358 40 9119 604

@nillaheikkila