Maxine Chester creates sculptural pieces which engage with ideas relating to identity and ageing feminine subjectivity. In particular, the work surfaces notions of the menopause, the maternal and sexuality to contribute to the dialogue around the ways ageing femininity is represented in visual culture. Her work explores traditional and experimental materials and processes which heighten multi-sensory experiences drawing on smell, touch, sound, and sight.

Chester’s background in painting is evident in the sensibility she brings to her sculpture in terms of composition, colour and the various modes of presentation. Points of departure are located within Chester’s research alongside personal experience and the physical process of making the work.

Chester works with various feminist discourses, aiming to engage with debates about stereotypical representations of ageing femininity which operate within patriarchal ideology. One strand considers psychoanalytical frameworks which explore relationships between ourselves and others. A revisiting of the theory of the abject put forward by Julia Kristeva disrupts perceptions of self by examining binary categorisation, such as inclusion and exclusion, male and female and, Chester’s take, young and old. It seems as though ageing, including the menopause, is culturally perceived as an abject process. The work also responds to Bracha L. Ettinger’s psychoanalytic framework matrixial theory, which invites the exploration of intersubjective and intersectional approaches in order to reposition difference and specificity.