When I Grow Up: senior citizen art exhibition Professor David J. Demko, gerontologist and editor AgeVenture News Service, Boca Raton, Florida 06-29-04 "When I Grow up" examines later life through the eyes of five senior artists. The exhibition, organized by curator John Spiak, addresses universal age-related subjects such as independence, mature creativity, dependency, displacement, wellness, and racism. David Greenberger "The Duplex Planet" The Duplex Planet is an ongoing work designed to portray a wide variety of real characters who are old or in decline. In our culture, exposure to people at this point in their lives is generally limited to seeing family members age and, since that points directly to one's own mortality, it's hard to glean much in the way of an objective example. In 1979 I took a job as activities director at a nursing home in Boston. I had just completed a degree in fine arts as a painter. On the day that I first met the residents of the nursing home, I abandoned painting. That is to say, I discarded the brushes and canvas, not the underlying desire to see something in the world around me and then communicate it to others. I wanted others to know these people as I did. Wisdom comes with knowing a person well enough to recognize their particular take on the world. - David Greenberger Troy Aossey: "Sun City West Jazzy Poms Cheerleader" The "Sun City West Jazzy Poms" have defied stereotypes of aging by redefining an American institution ... the cheerleader or "pommie." An elderly cheerleader challenges our cultural attitudes that revere youthful good looks and our expectations that older people are, or ought to be, asexual or socially dormant. We do not naturally conjure up images of 60 to 85 year old cheerleaders- short skirted, legs kicking and synchronized. Yet with grace and energy the Jazzy Poms challenge our notions that the elderly are fearful of aging, fearful of appearing sexy, fearful. As one elderly cheerleader put it, "We have beautiful legs for women our age. We get whistles and propositions. People can't believe our energy. We are not old women. We don't look like old women and in fact we never looked better in our lives. When we are getting whistles we thrive on it. It's nice to have men pay attention to us." Sun City West Jazzy Poms defy aging by putting on the uniform and kicking away our outdated cultural attitudes toward the elderly. - Troy Aossey Jessica Ingram: "Grandma's Walk to Church" Every Sunday I know that Granma walks to Uncle Johnny’s house, to ride with him and Aunt Pearl to church. She leaves her green trailer across from my great aunt Frankie’s house and walks to the end of Golden Lane. She turns left at the stop sign, passing my cousin Jamie’s trailer. She walks slowly, but determinately, teetering between the shoulder and the centerline. She’ll walk this road every Sunday, passing her former childhood schoolhouse, now a community center that holds our Golden Family reunions every December. Her walks represent her independence. For me, this walk is a way that I enjoy her, a way I visually remember her. - Jessica Ingram Danielle Abrams: "The Dew Drop Lady" Early Bird is a performance where Dew Drop Lady, a character I embody who is based upon my long lineage of Jewish mothers, is inserted into a community of Brighton Beach elders. Dew Drop Lady joins the senior citizens in the context of a bench-lined sitting area in front of Key Food. She is wearing her standard uniform of housecoat, schmatah, and a rhinestone purse. Although she looks like many of her park bench neighbors, the seams of difference emerge in her conversations with the Brighton locals. - Danielle Abrams Vincent Goudreau: "Villa Capri" (senior portrait) Villa Capri , the first of Vincent Goudreau’s videos, is an exploration yet critical look into a retirement home in Los Angeles, California. Rooted in psychology and sociology this portrait of an American institution visits the residents and their stories, which have then led them to live at Villa Capri. With existing taboos of aging and death, the work attempts to allow a space or an opportunity for the voices of those who have been culturally set aside. Capturing the planned weekly activities exposes the forced dependencies and control struggles that develop in such living environments. - Vincent Goudreau All senior work in the exhibition is installed in the ASU Art Museum's Nelson Fine Arts Center location for public view from now until September 11, 2004. "When I Grow Up..." takes a younger generations view at different situations of senior citizens and the respect, or lack there of, towards the aging in our society. It presents the options, both chosen and dealt out of circumstance, which decide how and where individuals spend their "golden years." The museum is always FREE and open to the public. Tours guided by docents will also be available for groups of 10 to 50 individuals at a time. Please contact the museum to book a tour at least two weeks in advance. The museum's Internet web site is located at: www.asuartmuseum.asu.edu Graphic credits: ASU Art Museum's Nelson Fine Arts Center