The Pedestal Project

A procession of older women carry their own pedestal, a simple milk crate. Standing on high as statues of themselves, they see and are seen. Many older women experience a sense of invisibility. Some relish and utilise this anonymity and invisibility, others feel ignored and devalued, while others are labelled mad or crazy when they heighten their visibility.Through performative interventions, this project places older women in view, addressing the duality of their (in)visibility, while highlighting the under representation of women in public space. Of Melbournes 583 only 12 represent actual Australian women.

Creating colonnades and encircling patriarchal monuments the VOW Collective celebrates older women, while increasing the visibility of women in Melbounre’s civic spaces. Creating monuments of their own, the VOW Collective places the ageing female body in public space, momentarily changing and quietly disrupting the male dominance of the cityscape.