Art and menopause

Blood, lust, and invisibility

Authors

Keywords:

menopause, art, sexuality, age, Pauline Curnier Jardin

Abstract

Where menstruation has become a well-established topic in visual art and criticism, not much has yet been done or written on menopause, although it has been a prominent topic in the broader visual culture (film, TV series, magazines etc.). The purpose of the article is twofold: First, I want to provide an overview of a developing field of visual art that deals with menopause, second, I will analyse the surreal video Qu’un sang impur, 2019, by Pauline Curnier Jardin (b. 1980). In the bizarre video postmenopausal women bleed heavily when they see men they lust for. This will be the point of departure for a discussion of perceptions of blood, sexuality, and elderly women in the video and in society as such.

Author Biography

Camilla Skovbjerg Paldam, Aarhus Universitet

Camilla Skovbjerg Paldam er lektor, ph.d. ved Kunsthistorie, Aarhus Universitet. Hun forsker i repræsentationer af køn og seksualitet i kunst og visuel kultur og i det 20. århundredes avantgarder, særligt surrealisme. Hendes seneste publikationer er: “The Activist Potential of Feminist Art – Artworks as Agile Objects in Museum Communication” in The Activist Museum. Practice, theories and actors, Fabian, Birch og Uldbjerg (eds.), 2024 og “Kønnet kultur og skæv repræsentation: Et tilbageblik på og en kvalitativ analyse af 30 år i dansk akademia” in Passepartout, Uden titel, dec. 2023.

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Published

2024-05-31

Issue

Section

Artikler