Baby Boomer
Art for Alzheimer’s Awareness – 2014 – Pine Rivers Regional Gallery
Solo Exhibitions – Window Installations
The third exhibition in which I used my art to bring awareness to various aspects of
Alzheimer’s disease including the experiences of the carer, the person in care and social influences. Once again, this third installation could apply to any age, culture etc. and may challenge the viewer to not only respect the life stories of the older person but to consider the life experiences of others around us: that we are all individuals with our own unique histories.
This current installation investigates the fear of the Baby Boomer. In 2010 a study by Alzheimer’s Australia NSW indicated that, after cancer, dementia was the most feared disease by seniors.
As a Baby Boomer myself, I felt it appropriate to make this installation a more personal interpretation. I grew up in an era when we all seemed to have an elderly aunt called, Daisy, Violet, Rose or Iris, to name a few. Our family history, as well as other past events in our lives, establishes our personal self-identity. With memory loss this personal belief system is broken down. These everyday memories and relationships of our past are represented by the five black and white portraits, ladies with flowers that are also a girl’s name. Flowers that are also transient, fragile.
The Baby Boomer is a self-portrait. I was inspired by Ron Mueck’s sculptures and have portrayed myself as a small person crammed into a too small a coffin to represent the fear of dementia for the Baby Boomer. The once familiar and fun party game of the 1960’s is now replaced with the modern, digital memory games in a concerted effort for memory stimulation.
2015 Whispers from My Soul
2014 Baby Boomer
2012 Yesterday’s Room
2011 VoVo
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