Leiden University Student Repository

Francolini, Nina (2023)

‘Best Before: Old Age’: The Abject and Ageing Female Bodies in Pinar Yolaçan’s Perishables (2002-2004)

Bachelor thesis | Kunstgeschiedenis (BA)

Perishables is a photographic series that features the portraits of nineteen white women between the ages of fifty and seventy. Through its engagement with abject materials, namely its use of animal skins and organ linings as garments for the photographed women, the series aims to enter into a generative relationship with its spectators, where the female ageing body is explored and re-negotiated through its abject exploration. Departing from a sociological, philosophical and feminist perspective, I frame Perishables as a powerful and poignant commentary on the social abjection of female ageing bodies that engages with the feminist tradition of body reclamation. The aim of this paper is to deconstruct and unveil the ageist and patriarchal notions inscribed in the female ageing body, and to showcase (theoretical and socially engaged) practices to refute them.

Ageing

Abjection

Body

Feminism

Gender

Author

Francolini, Nina

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Arts, Media and Society

Supervisors

Moine, S.M.M.
Davis, L.B.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en