Monica Winther

Through her artistic practice Monica Winther cultivates the repressed – the things that should not be touched upon, what one should not do or say. Expressively, this manifests itself as beautiful and hideous, assertive and unassertive. With this as her anchoring point, Winther has filled BO’s exhibition space with an overwhelming painterly installation interspersed with sculpture, photography, textiles, and performance, that collectively make tribute to the artist’s mother, Svanhild Winther, who passed away as Winther was working on the exhibition.

Life and death is the final chapter in Winther’s long-term artistic processing of her own upbringing. At BO we are met with a love declaration and confrontation with a mother who did her best, but had neither luck nor fortune on her side. In an intimate manner, Winther lets us in on her own childhood, dominated by her mother’s absence abuse that robbed both her and her brother from their mom. Meanwhile, in-between this dyfunctionality, we are also met with wonderful intermissions, filled with love.

The exhibition at BO tells a personal story, but is just as much an account of real class distinctions and destinies, luck and misfortune. Through inviting the audience into her own universe and chaos, Winther confronts us with the instability that governs our individual and collective existence.

Monica Winther (b. 1976) is educated at the Art Academy in Bergen and as gardener at VEA, Norway’s Green Vocational School. Her interdisciplinary practice includes installation, video, performance, sculpture, drawing, and painting. Winther has presented work and held performances at institutions such as The Stenersen Museum, Takfag, Henie Onstad Art Center, The Royal Norwegian National Theatre, Monkey Town New York, LNM, The Astrup Fearnley Museum, LIAF – Lofoten International Art Festival, and Preus Museum.