Old Bags Project tackles body image issues

The Old Bags Project is a contemporary conversation presented in a multi-media format by architect Faith Baum of Lexington and filmmaker Lori Petchers of New York. The former Connecticut neighbors theorize many mid-life American women were experiencing a loss of identity, and a sense of marginalization, believing they are held captive in a consumer culture that causes them to feel invisible as their youthful appearance ages.

So often seen as a status symbol in an arriviste culture ubiquitous shopping bags announce desirability. Expanding the metaphor, before being photographed Baum and Petchers asked post menopausal women to disrobe to their underwear and place a self-selected shopping bag over their heads. By design, the double entendre of the desirable iconic bag covering the nameless, faceless older women makes their point satirically.