MILL
Copenhagen, Matteo Cantarella 
2023, December     

Matteo Cantarella is pleased to present MILL, a solo exhibition by

Danish artist Sofie Winther. Comprising a multi-part installation of

hyper-functional objects, the exhibition furthers Winther’s interest in the

forms of dependence that determine relationships between individual

and systems. With MILL, Winther explores how the relations of

reciprocity, control and discipline that we enter into, simultaneously

embody oppressive structures and fundamental existential necessities.

In her ongoing work, which spans sculpture, installation and

performance, Winther questions her environment from a position

between autonomy and dependence, seeking to unveil the pervasive

matrix of the cultural, political and environmental implications that are

ingrained in our memory and presentness. Characteristic of her formal

language is the use of functional elements that, in their ubiquitous

forms, are often experienced in light of their perceived roles of

discipline and control - an array of materials which Winther pulls from

the aesthetics of public furnishings, and material encounters of the

everyday.

Outstretched across the central wall is a rectilinear large whiteboard,

which contemplatively hangs above the floor space. Conventionally

found in educational settings, whiteboards are oftentimes associated

with one’s early encounters with formalised discipline and authority.

Bringing to the fore its repressive character, Winther points at how the

production of subjectivity is intertwined with those forms that shape our

social and spatial awareness, hinting at the ontological influence that

such functional structures inherently hold on our desire and perceived

agency. In its proximity, other ordinary objects from the domain of our

public living tell us stories of production, efficiency and control. At once

activated and impractical, these sculptures now exert a tenuous

strength, hanging at viewer’s arm’s length where no discernible utility or

subjection can be found. A child mannequin, clad in a meticulously

assembled vest, glances the scene in a solitary and pensive stance.

To subvert the idea that the logic behind these systems is unassailable,

Winther intuitively introduces unexpected elements in the works. On a

closer look, one catches scattered trails of plastic ants, some

descending the walls, some peaking from an industrial hand towel

dispenser, others, instead, forming an endless circle across the floor

space. Winther does not presupposes that an unequivocally common

association exists simply in the convergence of these elements.

Through discontinuity, she enables new resonances, and reasserts

connections between different images which the viewer is ultimately

relied upon to complete. With its poetic implications, MILL alludes at the

possibility of a negation, change, and disobedience, a deviation to the

substance of the everyday. What does it take one minuscule ant to

unwind the spiral?

Text and documentation by Matteo Cantarella