Five photos and a film. Every time you see the same woman, an older woman. Sometimes you see her on the back, in other photos she looks at you defiantly. She has a yellow-ripened banana in her hands.

The banana is a recurring theme in the solo exhibition Never Too Old To Cut The Banana When Erected by Lola Keyezua (1988, Angola). The banana is widely known as a symbol of sexuality and the male genitals. This evocative shape can be shocking and threatening at times, but this woman is completely in control of the yellow fruit. She has cut the banana from the bunch and makes it her own: at first she keeps it playfully behind her back, after which she sensually brings it to the mouth and devours it.

In every culture there are many taboos surrounding the woman as a sexual being. One of the less discussed taboos is sexuality among older women, who are preferably placed in the categories of mother and sweet old grandmother. That sweet old grandmother also has sexual needs should not be openly expressed and certainly not talked about. Inspired by interactions with her own grandmother, Keyezua has been exploring female sexuality among the elderly.

In addition to the photos and film, Lola Keyezua has created a space-filling installation. The visitor walks through a forest of green pillars in which bananas have been inserted, which slowly ripen from green to yellow. Everyone, young and certainly old, is invited to pick their own banana and overpower it. Because you are never too old to cut the banana when it is erected.

• You can visit the solo exhibition The Reptile Room by Tom Liekens at the same time.
• More about Lola Keyezua

Friday 23.04.2021, Saturday 24.04.2021 and Sunday 25.04.2021: 13.00 / 18.00 • Amsterdam Art Opening Weekend.
You are welcome to join us for the opening of Never Too Old To Cut The Banana When Erected, which will happen together with the opening of The Reptile Room by Tom Liekens. (Following the Dutch COVID-19 regulations).

2021 •
02.07 Elephant Lola Keyezua Erects a Monument to Elderly Sexuality by Charlotte Jansen.
26.04 Metropolis M Joint Opening Weekend #2: Amsterdamse galeries openen gezamenlijk hun deuren by Pernilla Ellens