This blog is intended for all who are interested in art, menopause and ageing.

“There seems to be a release from the old imperatives of dominance and power, of competitive appearance and performance, of self abnegation and manipulation, of conformity and mask, of illusion and self deceit.”

Betty Friedan

The Fountain of Age, p.132 1993

Interestingly I am reading Friedans’s book for the first time. It was given to me by my first supervisor who retired at the beginning of my PhD journey. I had no time to read it back then as my direction moved toward feminist psychoanalysis. Now, at the age of 60 and post PhD I have a wee bit of time on my hands – not much because I also teach. However, Friedan’s book seems as relevant today as it was in 1993. So what if anything has changed?

I endeavour to further my research and will be posting weekly here with the hope that you may like to engage in knowing more about how art can be a rite of passage through menopause, a most significant and potentially empowering stage of life.

Dr Athene Currie recently graduated with a PhD from Queensland College of Art (QCA). Her research statement Performing the Transformative, addresses rites of passage as a means of transformation toward self-empowerment. Engagement with masque, masquerade and, performativity has informed this inquiry. Athene’s arts practice began in 1986 as a painter in New Zealand. She also trained in stage and screen performance. Attending the National Art School in Sydney in 1991, Athene later achieved a BA with Honour’s in Photography from QCA. Her short film Water/milk (2000) was finalist in the Pacific Film and Television New Film Makers Awards and acquired by Griffith Art Museum. The studio outcomes for Performing the Transformative are the live performance Suitcase (2021) and an installation of video works screened at QCA Galleries. Athene is a teacher of Visual Art at a Brisbane high school. She is currently writing for publication on the theme of menopause and {I}: Posthumanism, eco feminism and the bodily ego.