Carmen Winant: My Mother and Eye

For her deeply personal project “My Mother and Eye”, curated by Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress, Carmen Winant, assembled hundreds of stills from films that she and her mother each made as teenagers while driving across the US. In 1969, Winant’s mother left her family home for the first time, documenting her journey from Los Angeles to Niagara Falls on Super 8 film. In 2001, with a 35mm camera in hand, Winant chronicled her own reverse journey from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.

Each of the 11 compositions explores recognisable landmarks, interwoven narratives, and the horizon line in a different way. The resulting montages collapse the two journeys across time and landscapes, unfolding individual experiences of newfound freedom, buoyancy, and the power of self-representation. Displayed on JCDecaux bus shelters, the exhibition connects with the movement of daily transit, inviting commuters and passersby to imagine their own stories of travel, transformation, and connection.