Original Project Proposal RMIT Honours

For my research topic, I plan to continue my studies in portraiture whilst exploring the theme of women transitioning to old age. I want to outline the mixed responses to ageing women and focus not only on women’s vulnerability to media messaging but also the strength that emerges when women are no longer celebrated as sexual objects but as holders of life lessons, familial relationships, expert knowledge and creativity.

In our society and media landscape, women’s bodies are often pathologised. The physical changes in women’s bodies during menopause are seized upon as something to medicate and fight against, whilst the ramping up of desire, autonomy and creativity is usually overlooked and rarely celebrated.

The Gisele Pelicot case in France highlights a perverse need to silence and subjugate a matriarchal woman. The uncomfortable pervasiveness of this crime is contrasted by the victim’s willingness to bear witness to the crimes reenacted via video footage. In doing so, she displaces the shame and asserts her power to speak out on behalf of other women.

Traditional portraiture has focussed on depicting younger women and the attributes of youth, beauty, innocence, fragility and fertility. Young women are ushered into being only when they are the subject of the male gaze.

For older women, the process of being seen is more complicated but ultimately more rewarding as it involves self-realisation. Men do not develop in the same way. Men do not have the same milestones of virility and are seen as inherently masculine at all stages of life.

Throughout the project, I will reference historical portraits, including works by female artists such as Frida Kahlo and Paula Modersohn-Becker, who both made autobiographical paintings proclaiming self-determination and autonomy over their bodies.

I will contrast autobiographical works by female artists to historical works by their male counterparts, depicting ageing male figures in grand narratives involving battles or quests for knowledge.  

There is, a growing tide of literature that recognises the power women can seize in this moment of transition. Miranda July’s All Fours is but one example.