Deborah Eddy is exploring the Venus of Willendorf as a trope for the body type of older women. The original Venus of Willendorf is approximately 25,000 years old. Carved from limestone, she is a round woman standing with her arms resting on her breasts and belly (hence why my Venuses do not have visible arms).
The original Venus remains a mystery and there is conjecture as to her purpose. One researcher, Ms Antl-Weiser, head of the prehistory section at Vienna’s Natural History Museum, believes “she’s a rather older woman, one who has certainly already had children”.
The Venuses in this exhibition are a celebration of older woman. The first Venus Eddy made was the Venus of Scarborough. She celebrates a love of high vis colours, sparkly make-up and over the top frocks. From there Eddy explored the never-ending chore of housework, insomnia, and the judgemental comment describing older women as looking like ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ (hopefully not so prevalent a comment today). A terrible experience Eddy had at Redcliffe Hospital where she was afforded no dignity inspired Venus of Hospital. Venus of Undressed looks at older women’s self-loathing of their bodies because the media touts that to age successfully we must look young and slim.
Older women are more than the sum of their experiences and Eddy moved onto the Venus of Protest. This Venus celebrates the work of the protest group the Knitting Nannas whose punch line is “Saving the land, air and water for the kiddies”. Many older women work and still hold important positions in companies and in the community. Hence the Venus of Employed, a businesswoman Venus in an important job.
Eddy’s soft sculptures could be considered craft however, women’s artwork that uses stitching is often a methodology that is a means to an end. To tackle this art versus craft debate Eddy has painted the Venuses’ portraits which elevate the soft sculptures from craft to art. Additionally, she is making visible older women in art. She is shamelessly using pink as a background, a colour that is loaded with history and meaning, a colour that is often considered too young for older women to wear.
There are many more Venuses to be explored and this project will continue.
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Website https://deboraheddyart.com/
