Flesh after fifty

Ruth Maddison, Box Hill Over 90s Club, from the series Women Over Sixty 1990-91, pigment print

Hi all, Leanne here.

This is a bit of a complicated story, but my mum plays tennis at North Fitzroy (Edinburgh Gardens), and was chatting to Professor Martha Hickey’s partner (I assume he plays tennis there too). And they talked about this upcoming exhibition at The Convent in Abbotsford that Professor Hickey conceived out of concern that the message to younger women about menopause ageing was almost exclusively negative and did not reflect the capability, diversity and achievements of older women.

Professor Hickey is a clinical psychologist and gynaecologist. She is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne, Director of Gynaecology Research Centre at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Head of Menopause Service at the Women’s and Visiting Professor at Harvard University.

And mum thought it might be interesting to share. And I think she is right. So here we go!

Flesh after Fifty - changing images of older women in Art is running at the Abbotsford Convent from 7 March -11 April.

The exhibition will explore and challenge negative stereotypes of ageing while celebrating and promoting positive images of older women. It will bring to the fore images that need revisiting or have been overlooked, plus 10 new commissioned art installations that explore social issues, health and empowerment of older women.

It is accompanied by curatorial discourse and community engagement in a series of forums, events and essays by key academics, artists and community leaders exploring the politics and social impact around the construction of images of older women, addressing this topic in the pursuit of a new visual dynamic and appreciation of the older female form.

A list of artists involved in the exhibition can be found here.

And the full program of events that sit alongside the exhibition are here. They include a host of movies, a women’s dinner hosted by Denise Scott, a writer’s panel including Melanie Cheng, Donna Ward and Catherine Deveney, a gogo dancing for over 50s workshop and other extra fun workshops including (the unique chance ladies, to make your lady parts out of icing!? in) the Hotham Street Ladies workshop.

Sounds pretty edgy and fascinating right? Just like all of us! And it’s right on our doorstep. This is an event that was delayed for a year by COVID, so it might also be nice to support the artists now that we can get back to things again.