Photo Credit: Erich Malter Erlangen
The concept of transformation runs throughout artist and researcher Eva Meyer-Keller’s body of work. In her past work, Death is Certain (2002), Meyer-Keller acts as executioner, staging 36 mini moments of death and torture on cherries, transforming the sweet red fruits into bloody bodies, their guts splattered across the table. Meyer-Keller’s latest work, Turn The P/Age, once again loads fruit and vegetables with symbolism; a tomato becomes the site of a gynaecological examination and a pink radicchio, stripped of its leaves, reveals a moist clitoral centre. The work speaks to the experience of womanhood and femininity through four cast members, all cis and trans women, and draws on their lived biographies, engaging directly with the subjects of growing older, hormonal changes and menopause. It also challenges medical biases and the inherited myths of aging women, specifically the iconography of becoming the crone, the witch and the wise old woman. Ahead of its return to Sophiensæle, we spoke with Meyer-Keller about why it’s necessary to tell new stories about the role of the menopausal woman in society.
Photo Credit: Mayra Wallraff
Is this work a way for you to better understand and process your own transformation?
Yes, definitely. During my two-year research process, I realised, in the midst of the chaos of perimenopause, that I’m not yet the serene and wise woman I had hoped to become. I still have to cope with fluctuating hormones, inflammation in my shoulders and mood swings. One of the first texts I read was The Space Crone by Ursula K. Le Guin, in which she writes that this is the moment when a woman gives birth to herself for the third time – just yourself, as yourself. I love that. Together with my cast, I discovered that this moment indeed holds an opportunity. Freed from the demand to reproduce, rigid ideas of what a woman is supposed to be begin to loosen. In this sense, there’s a parallel to the experiences of trans women, who are also positioned outside reproductive definitions of womanhood and often face medicalisation and scrutiny. In both cases, stepping outside the norm reveals how constructed these ideas are and how much freedom can emerge once they dissolve. This opens up space for invention. We can become curious about our actual experiences, get informed and finally begin to write our own story.
Photo Credit: Mayra Wallraff
Why is it important that new stories are written about the experience of aging women?
In patriarchal societies, women’s bodies have long been controlled, especially the uterus. No other organ in the human body is subject to as many laws, regulations and opinions. Yet it’s also an organ capable of creating another organ, the placenta: a phenomenon that remains surprisingly under-researched. When the uterus no longer serves a reproductive function, that system of control begins to lose its force. Menopause is still widely framed as a story of lack and deficiency, not only in medicine but across society as a whole. Mood swings, hot flashes and emotional shifts are often described as uncontrollable or pathological. This framing is degrading. It renders women invisible by reducing a profound transformation to a set of symptoms. But it’s misleading. It’s a language imposed on menopause, not the truth of it. You’re not declining, you’re accumulating. The hormonal shift happens on its own, but it can act as a force that drives you into a sharper, more defined version of yourself. This is the story we’re telling. Menopause is a coming-of-age moment, not in youth, but later in life: a story of adventure, eroticism, sensuality and power, shaped through both small and grand gestures. It’s radical. It’s exciting. It’s not something to endure or avoid, but something to step into and embrace.
Photo Credit: Mayra Wallraff
Through your research, what information about menopause and women’s bodies did you discover that surprised you?
There’s no field that exerts as much power over women’s bodies as gynaecology. That doesn’t mean that gynaecology always acts in the best interests of women. Gynaecologists receive relatively little training on menopause compared to pregnancy and other illnesses. Menopause has many and varied symptoms, yet cardiologists and orthopaedists receive no training on it, even though around 50% of their patients will experience it. In Germany, that affects about nine million people right now. One more surprising fact is that menopause is extremely rare in the animal kingdom and occurs only in toothed whales.
This piece was created and performed by four women, cis and trans, of different ages. What was the benefit of using multiple stories and experiences?
Stepping outside the norm reveals how constructed these ideas are and how much freedom can emerge once they dissolve.
I approached several women with experiences I didn’t yet have myself, including two slightly older women who had already gone through menopause and a trans woman who had been on hormone treatment for 10 years and underwent gender-affirming surgery during the research process with the full cast. Alongside examining structural issues in history over the last 2,000 years, as well as in contemporary politics and society, I wanted each of us to reflect on our own personal experiences of hormonal change. In the performance, this results in a mix of objective, observational information and deeply personal stories, with each of us bringing a different experience of hormonal transition. This process revealed how little research, care and funding exist around menopause – a gap that is even more severe for trans people.
Photo Credit: Mayra Wallraff
Within your work, you regularly use everyday objects, in this case medical apparatus, as material. What is your fascination with objects and what information do they hold?
I use everyday objects to make something ungraspable graspable, quite literally. I often use them in slightly altered ways, not as they are normally used in daily life. This creates a small irritation and a recalibration of perception, requiring each spectator to look closely at what’s happening on stage and actively use their imagination to make sense of the situation. In this project, however, we use medical equipment both aesthetically and conceptually, including scalpels and a nasal speculum which, when placed into a tomato, strongly resembles a vaginal speculum. This creates a visceral reaction. You can’t help but empathise, or even anthropomorphise the fruit. That visceral response is what I’m looking for. Because everyone has held a tomato or a melon before, these objects are immediately relatable. Through them, abstract ideas of the body, transformation and vulnerability become tangible.
Photo Credit: Erich Malter Erlangen
Do you think Turn The P/Age challenges inherited myths and reclaims ageing as a site of power?
Yes. One way we approach this is by citing stories from The Hexenhammer [Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century text about witches], which reveal how older women were historically framed as dangerous and deviant. Another key discovery during the research was the origin of the word ‘gossip’. It originally referred to groups of women, known as ‘God sibs’ [siblings of God]), who were present at childbirth, sharing knowledge and support. In All’s Well That Ends Well, this collective exchange of knowledge is degraded and reframed as something trivial and malicious, reduced to ‘gossip’.
Inherited narratives don’t disappear overnight; they have to be unlearned and reshaped collectively.
By repeating these myths and stories from the past, we hold up a mirror to them and expose how constructed and strategic they are. At the same time, the piece proposes other ways of thinking and being. Inherited narratives don’t disappear overnight; they have to be unlearned and reshaped collectively. In the performance, this is approached as a shared process. It’s not presented as comfortable or easy. Each of us found it challenging. Transformation is rarely smooth; it often involves resistance, difficulty and sometimes even crisis. But choosing to engage with that process can be rewarding. There’s something valuable to be gained – a kind of treasure that can be uncovered if you’re willing to move through it with curiosity. That’s what we aim to encourage: acknowledging the challenge while also pointing toward the beauty and power that can emerge from it.
Turn The P/Age, Mar 21-22, Sophiensæle, German and English, details.