Patrick Taylor Artist

THIS EXHIBITION at BL6 Studios from 2nd to 11th October was sixty imagined portraits and scenes centred on British women in later life. It imagined women born around 1955 or earlier and who grew up in social conditions very different from those of today.

The exhibition was not intended as a party-political statement. It reflected the circumstances in which these women grew up. They are women who possess age: who carry it as experience, memory, endurance and authority. Age here is not treated as gradual disappearance but as a condition of presence. These women have not faded out of significance. They ask to be looked at properly.

The images are also a reaction against ageism and a culture which places enormous value on youth and conformity to ideals promoted through advertising, influencers and social media. We have become less comfortable with eccentricity — with people simply looking, dressing and behaving as themselves rather than as they are expected to.

The exhibition was not a history lesson and it was not about ‘women’s lib’. I just make images. I hope these images portray older women as alive as people of any age. They are presented as real people in every sense: vivid, watchful, dignified, vulnerable, theatrical, resilient, humorous, self-conscious, beautiful, sometimes sensual, sometimes down on their luck, uncertain, and still fully present.

The exhibition was in aid of Fortalice, a domestic abuse charity in Bolton.