Fecund after 60: women, art and the feminine principle

In a new exhibition, three artists - Josie Grindrod, Clare van Zyl and Jann Cheifitz - explore how women are represented in myth and culture, focusing on creativity, balance and rejuvenation

- By Mary Corrigall

Visitors, who enter the Fecund exhibition via a “uterus” curtain, are presented with an installation of paintings, works on paper, pottery, textile works and other sorts of detritus generated via a dialogue among its impassioned creators, Josie Grindrod, Clare van Zyl and Jann Cheifitz.

The sheer volume of artworks, which evoke historical representations of women, is intended to underscore the trio’s “fecundity”, despite their age.

In their early sixties and with substantial careers in various creative sectors behind them — Grindrod ran a craft and product development business, Van Zyl heads a film production company and Cheifitz a textiles business in the US — the trio are unwilling to believe that their best years are over.

In undoing this culture, the artworks probe the imagery that defines the feminine ideal of a young woman in her prime.

Prior to the opening on 9 July at the Everard Read Cape Town gallery, Mary Corrigall, art commentator and researcher, posed a few questions to Grindrod in her Woodstock studio.

Mary Corrigall: What sparked your interest in the themes of the feminine and mythology in your art?