Keeping Pace: Older Women of the East End

Keeping Pace: Older Women of the East End
01/01/2003 Rachel Lichtenstein

Keeping Pace: Older Women of the East End

(Women’s Library, 2003)

This exhibition curated by Rachel Lichtenstein celebrated the lives of older local women from a wide range of cultural and social backgrounds, through oral testimony, photography and personal memorabilia and aimed to challenge preconceptions with extraordinary accounts of these remarkable women lives. The exhibition included contributions from an eighty-year-old Yiddish actress, a Christian philanthropist, a grandmother who lives on an alternative commune and a Bangladeshi political activist. Complementing their spoken words was an eclectic mix of treasured possessions, making museum pieces of the everyday. The colour and texture of these belongings, together with Lola Flash’s large scale portraits and intimate shots of the women’s homes, provided a powerful visual accompaniment to their stories.