Prof. Jojin Van Winkle’s exhibition opens at Museum of Contemporary Art Saturday

“The Destruction Project,” archival inkjet print mounted on acrylic in lightbox, Prof. Jojin Van Winkle, copyright 2020The exhibition “The Destruction Project” by Professor Jojin Van Winkle opens this Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA). The documentary-based, multimedia video and audio installation explores the complex roles of destruction and its counterpoints of resilience in rural areas.

At 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, Prof. Van Winkle will give a virtual artist talk, followed by a discussion and Q&A with MMoCA’s assistant curator Elizabeth Shoshany Anderson. 

“The Destruction Project” is a multi-channel audio and video installation with accompanying photographs that unpacks the concept of destruction in three chapters: destruction as entertainment, destruction as rejuvenating, and destruction as irreversible. Through the use of theatrical imagery and multimedia, including soundscapes of field interviews with women living in rural areas and their relationships with ‘destruction’ in their lives, Prof. Van Winkle is able to capture the beauty visible in both loss and renewal as well as examine deeply the way destruction and growth intersect with choice, change, and violence to impact our everyday existence. 

Prof. Van Winkle’s research and work for the exhibition is supported in part by two Faculty Research, Scholarship and Creative Grants from Carthage College (2019 and 2020) and a 2019 month-long unplugged artist residency at Arteles Creative Center in Haukijärvi, Finland.

Prof. Jojin Van Winkle“Destruction has value. I grapple with this concept. It’s not something I want to admit to myself,” says Prof. Van Winkle. “For me, various processes of destruction are extensions of conscious and unconscious paradoxes. Beginnings that are really endings. The joy of something being transformed into something else recognizable yet different. The pain and the scars of violent separation. The sadness associated with loss of what was, mixed together with fear and hope of what might become. The singular moments of beauty and sometimes humor in the chaotic mess of it all. This project is an attempt to address these challenging co-existences, whether personal, societal, natural, or unexpected and their relationship with aspects of rural life.”

Prof. Jojin Van Winkle is a visual artist, filmmaker, and assistant professor of art at Carthage, teaching foundations and new media. She is the program director for Carthage’s Photography and Film and New Media program. Her research centers around the practice of listening. She exhibited large-scale installation art before working in video/film, photography, and sound.

SPONSORING DEPARTMENT, OFFICE, OR ORGANIZATION:

Art Department

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Jojin Van Winkle, jvanwinkle@carthage.edu, 608.354.4112 (c)