Offside - Women in Sport Art Exhibition

Belinda Mason, Photographer
My work usually covers social taboos, so it was a surprise to be invited to explore the topic of Women in Sport. It was amazing to be given the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and explore a world in which I am a complete outsider. As a child and then an adult, I never played sport, I didn't even play netball, I don't know how to play tennis or even swim. I did ballet, which is overlooked as a sport. I find it difficult to understand especially when most of it is about training, and not dancing. I don't have sporty friends in the traditional sense, but I certainly do now. Through this project I discovered many diverse and extraordinary women, not defined by the sport that they played, but through their lives outside of sport. I discovered the strength and fragility of each of these women is the thread that links us all in womanhood. Their fears and insecurities are the foundations that have empowered their passions, and in turn, give rise for them to experience larger and richer lives. The women as a group represent the diversity of experiences of sport across cultural boundaries and societal expectations, each of these women has broken unwritten rules to play their sport and follow a passion that has broadened their lives outside of sport. Exhibition runs from 31 January till 2 April 2015