Rose Handke Artist statement 5/8/2023

My art practice encompasses oil painting and sculpture to address notions of age and ageism with particular reference to the ageing female perspective. My work seeks to showcase the complex identities and life experiences of older women. Viewers are encouraged to cast aside inherent age-related bias as ageing is often viewed in reductive binaries of decline and progress (i.e., anti-ageing). This narrative is underpinned by power structures of patriarchy and consumerism and urgent conversations are needed to change this narrative.

Large scale still life paintings depicting objects that are associated with ageing are set in intimate domestic settings. Interventions and juxtapositions with other unexpected objects seek to unsettle notional ideas of ageing and the role expected of the ageing female. Scale and surprise act to engage the viewer and contest assumptions.

My sculptural practice employs a modified wet felting technique to transform collected vacuum cleaner dust and hair into objects that reference the domestic, gender and age. Dust is associated with decline and death, features that characterise ageing. By association, the transformation of dust (a worthless material) into a valued art object, imbues a sense of value to ageing. The dust sculptures possess a unique aroma and may be evoke a visceral reaction such as disgust. This offers an opportunity for an affective encounter that heightens the viewing experience.

My work draws on my own situated experience and that of family and friends whilst responding to the everyday. Objects are the material culture of our lives and narrate who we are, our needs and aspirations. It is the stuff of life.

My methodology uses semiotics and affect theory together with an autoethnographic approach.