Expiry Date

Johanna Saunders

Year: 12

School: Churchlands Senior High School

Medium: Ball Point Pen

Artist statement: Caught up in the chaos of modern day western society we have lost our appreciation for those who’s sagging skin and thinning hair has weathered for many more years than our own. My piece explores the physical toll aging takes upon the human body as well as western society’s instant need to stamp our aging population with “expiry dates’. A date that defines when our physical appearance and mental contribution to society is no longer appreciated but instead considered a hindrance.
Western society’s attitude towards wine contradicts its ideology of age. Our appreciation of wine grows with the number of years it adorns our earth, steadily gaining value as it ages. I question at what point western society deemed only aging of humans a process to be fearful of and why we no longer appreciate the wisdom that comes with so many years of experience of life.
I have chosen to use ballpoint pen as a medium due to the delicate nature of the medium to create lines and marks. It highlights the beauty of the marks and lines that the skin gains with the many years of life. It displays not only deterioration of our human shell within which we occupy but that of the beauty I feel that is gained from our years of living.”