Redressing the Crone

Redressing the Crone

Artist: Cynthia Smith

Date: March 4 to 20, 1993

Artist's Lecture: March 5

 This series of 40 black-and-white photographs of women at different stages of cosmetic surgery continued Smith's interest in issues related to female identity and self-image. The exhibition was presented by Open Space as part of the month-long celebration of International Women's Day.

"The portraits in this series are dramatic and disquieting pictures that attempt to document the paradoxical promises of plastic surgery. In the name of beauty and youth Smith's subjects have undergone painful, expensive medical procedures that are questionable, dangerous and promise uncertain and nonpermanent results. Plastic surgery is a medical solution to aging and beauty that masks a complex of social, economic and political motivations. The surgical inscriptions of burning, peeling, lifting and tucking, liposuction and implanting localize and isolate impossible patriarchical ideals of femininity on women's bodies." 

"Marking Time: The Crone Revisited", Open Space Archives, Victoria, B.C. (Box 22, File 1993: S1)