Carmen Winant: A Brand New End: Survival and Its Pictures

The Print Center presents A Brand New End: Survival and Its Pictures, an exhibition of new work by Carmen Winant, organized by Ksenia Nouril, PhD, The Print Center’s Jensen Bryan Curator. Through an expansive consideration of image making, domestic violence and the feminist movement, Winant explores how women are supported in achieving personal agency. Developed by Winant through intensive research—a hallmark of her category-defying practice—this unique collaboration between an artist and social services organizations probes the problems and possibilities of picturing domestic violence.

Winant’s project illuminates the often-invisible experiences of women, as well as feminist strategies for survival, revolt and self-determination. It highlights the power of print in representing how women view themselves and how photography can serve as a tool in the struggle for individual autonomy and self-representation.

The project incorporates historical and contemporary representations of oppression, liberation and self-expression drawn from the archives of Women In Transition (WIT) and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). Since 1971 WIT has empowered Philadelphians with the knowledge, support and ability to thrive beyond domestic abuse/intimate partner violence and substance abuse. NCADV is a Denver-based national organization that has been dedicated to supporting survivors and advocates, holding offenders accountable, as well as demanding a change in the conditions that lead to domestic violence since 1978.

Winant has translated, reproduced and re-contextualized imagery from the two archives to make new artworks—including several large-scale collages—for The Print Center’s galleries. Artist interventions unfold in numerous public transit sites around the city. Virtual and in-person public programs are an integral component of the project. A film by Itinerant Pictures accompanying the exhibition captures the artist’s process and the execution of the project. An artist book, created in collaboration with graphic design studio Common Name, builds on the legacy of feminist publications and printed materials as vehicles for expeditious and accessible dissemination of information.

In March 2020, Winant began exploring WIT’s extensive archive (a unique resource among such service organizations) that includes publications, how-to guides, manuals, staged photographs for instruction, newspaper clippings and ephemera. The archive provides an extraordinary window into feminism and the women’s liberation movement that began in the 1970s, when WIT was established to help newly divorced women learn strategies for navigating and thriving in a new world. Founded as a multiracial feminist collective by women for women, it evolved over the decades as new issues commanded attention, such as abuse by partners and drug addiction. Surfacing these themes of intergenerational exchange, Winant’s project considers what has changed and how the ongoing deconstruction of patriarchal systems of oppression can influence feminist ideals today.

While many of the materials in NCADV’s archive are complementary to WIT’s—newspaper clippings, buttons/pins with slogans, manuals and other guides, for example—their national scope brings an expanded perspective to the project.

A Brand New End: Survival and Its Pictures is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Upcoming events:

Artist talk, Carmen Winant: April 13, 6–7pm
In-person and on Zoom, registration required. Elaine C. Levitt Auditorium, University of the Arts, 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia 19102.

Gallery talk & opening reception: April 14, 5:30–7:30pm
Registration required. Gallery Talk with Carmen Winant and Ksenia Nouril, Jensen Bryan curator.

Exhibition tour: April 26, 5–5:45pm
Registration required. Guided exhibition tour at The Print Center with the curator.

Panel discussion, Picturing Domestic Violence: April 28, 6–7pm
At The Print Center and on Zoom, registration required.

Exhibition tour: May 12, 12–12:45pm
Registration required. Guided exhibition tour at The Print Center with the curator.

Conversation with Carmen Winant & Donna Ferrato: May 19, 6–7pm
On Zoom, registration required.

Exhibition tour: May 25, 5–5:45pm
Registration required. Guided exhibition tour at The Print Center with the curator.

WAVE Empowerment Self-Defense Class: June 2, 6–7:30pm
On Zoom, registration required. With Women In Transition.

Exhibition tour: June 10, 12–12:45pm
Registration required. Guided exhibition tour at The Print Center with the curator.