AGING . . . A FEMALE’S PERSPECTIVE

By Susan Roden

As a multidisciplinary artist, Susan has created a multi-platform installation centralizing upon the female perspective on aging’s physical and emotional impacts. Life’s natural process of aging affects all, yet western culture rarely discusses and the few words spoken are embedded with fallacies. Art transcends words, thus easily initiating dialogues on life’s natural process.

The exhibit consists of three segments, with the first of art dresses. The fabric substrate conceptualizes different biological stages of aging, such as dementia with techniques including hand printing, painting, dying and stitching.

The second component is mixed media tondos addressing ageism’s prejudices. One example is the beauty industry’s exploitation through products erasing visible age.

The final component is a Wall of Words. 13 to 86 year-old females’ personal reflections have been culled in a casual survey from California, Ohio and New Mexico. Anonymous viewpoints of four questions are scribed with attributed ages painted onto a wall.