Invisible: Society 'Disappears' Ageing Women Over 50, What I Did About It, Street Art

Last edited Mon Dec 11, 2023, 12:34 PM - Edit history (1)

'Society ‘disappears’ ageing women. So I harnessed that cloak of invisibility to do all sorts of ‘inappropriate’ things,' Dr. Deborah Wood, New Zealand born artist. The Guardian, Dec. 10, 2023. Ed. Instead of simmering in a stew of rage and resentment, I became a purveyor of transgressive acts, using street art to disrupt and spread joy. 🎨

The notion of becoming invisible as an ageing woman has become an accepted trope. My friends and I, from our late 50s onwards, were first gobsmacked then increasingly enraged at being talked over, not served, not replied to, brushed aside and not taken seriously. Small accretions of casual insult that eroded our hard-earned sense of self and agency.

I refrained from robbing a bank (though fairly sure I could have got away with the loot), instead turning my attention to street art.

My first guerrilla paste-up a decade or so ago was in a lane in Ballarat, Victoria. I was quite nervous and slightly fearful of being at least fined so I donned a hi-vis vest and put out semi-official public work signs and had a friend spotting for me. I needn’t have bothered – people went past me and simply did not see me. Yes! My cloak worked! This meant I could merrily take my artwork into the public domain and put up drawings of old ladies dancing in tutus, a small rupture in the expected representation of older women.

Sometimes I’d get permission to use a wall but I preferred the more transgressive act of just wandering into a public space and slapping up the posters whenever and wherever I felt like. Then there was the terrific initiative of the artist Dans Bain to gather women artists together to reclaim what was then a fairly blokey space – Melbourne’s Hosier Lane. It is generous, inclusive and has now continued for 5 years to become a welcome addition to the community. I love to take every opportunity to spread the idea of how visibility, agency and joy is possible and erasure not inevitable.

.. Let's be clear: invisibility for my cohort is no joke. It’s actually dangerous. It leads to exclusion from the workforce, financial precariousness, growing homelessness, bad health outcomes, elder abuse and silence and inaction in social policy...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/11/society-disappears-ageing-women-so-i-harnessed-that-cloak-of-invisibility-to-do-all-sorts-of-inappropriate-things

- Dr Deborah Wood is a New Zealand born visual artist who has exhibited in Melbourne and regionally for 40 years. She holds a PhD on women artists and self- portraiture. She employs drawing and street art paste ups to create works that explore both autobiographical and contemporary social themes.