What if Women Ruled the World?

Challenging deep-rooted biases about age, beauty and the relevance of older women, Lola Flash’s “SALT” series is one of sixteen projects featured in EΜΣΤ’s What if Women Ruled the World?

Working at the forefront of genderqueer visual politics for more than four decades, New York City-based photographer Lola Flash works primarily in portraiture, engaging those who are often deemed invisible and challenging stereotypes and preconceptions around gender, sexual, racial, and cultural difference. In their series “SALT”—a series of portraits of women over seventy who are still actively engaged in their lives’ work—Flash challenges how society looks at these women. Aiming to combat the erasure and invisibility that older women often experience and to highlight the deep-rooted cultural and societal biases that remove them from the public sphere, Flash shows that in a culture where beauty is equated with youth, these women are not only beautiful but accomplished and making significant contributions to society. This intimate portrait series reflects their wisdom, attractiveness and power, which are often disregarded because of ageism.

SALT is one of sixteen projects featured in the four-part What if Women Ruled the World? exhibition cycle organized by the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EΜΣΤ) Athens. Initiated by EMΣT artistic director Katerina Gregos and inspired by Yael Bartana’s 2017 neon work of the same name (which is now on display on the north and south facades of the EMΣT building) this cycle of exhibitions is based on an often-repeated hypothetical question: What would happen if governance was characterized by female traits?