Georgie White Winter
‘Balance a raw cabbage’, from the series Old Wives Tales, Pregnancy Myths.
Georgie White Winter is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and educator working with photography, text, video, sound and fabric. Her work considers personal and collective identities of motherhood through structures of rituals or myths, studying their meaning and impact on an individual. Currently White Winter is creating work around the subject of the body during pregnancy and becoming a parent, alongside the study of language used, often flippantly, around the subject which can have a knock on effect. She is particularly interested in the use of old wives tales or english idioms often using a tongue in cheek response in her work. Previous projects have taken her to explore British folklore and traditions through photography. She recently completed a series of new projects studying female clowns, morris dancers and British performers which use sound to explore the character in the photograph.
Trained in fine art photography at the London College of Communication she then went on to complete a Master’s in History of Photography at Birkbeck, University of London. She is also a co-founder of artist platform HEWING WITTARE who aim to develop an artist's work in an increasingly challenging world to practice in. With HEWING WITTARE she has designed and curated six very different exhibitions with significant artists working in a variety of mediums. Her work can be found in private collections across the UK and has featured in exhibitions including a collaboration project entitled Tell with artist Emily Vanns. Based in Walthamstow both artists responded to local residents' stories creating a historical zine of the area. This was accompanied by an extensive events programme for all ages as part of Waltham Forest's 2019 Borough of Culture celebrations and was included in both the E17 Art Trail and Art Night.
Artist Statement ‘Old Wives’ Tales Pregnancy Myth’
This series is a tongue in cheek look at Old Wives’ Tales. I am fascinated with myths, folklore and tales, I believe they are really important to our culture. When I became pregnant the second time I studied Old Wives’ Tales that claimed to predict the sex of your unborn child. I wanted to play with the idea of myths and really push the understanding of what they have become today. Often regarded as irrational, illogical and absurd stories that over the passing of time have become more of a fanciful and fun saying than anything of truth or a statement to learn from I have been curious to explore the iractional with my own myths. The Oxford dictionary understands the term Old Wives Tale as ‘an old idea or belief that people now know is not correct’, but is this too hasty? Are we too quick to write off the term as foolish stories told by senile women?
Interestingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, what I discovered with the traditional Old Wives’ Tales was the ingrained prejudice against women. The outlook of the myths hint at the desire to bear a cherished baby boy and not another ghastly girl. If you’ve gained weight during pregnancy then it's because your little girl is deteriorating your looks generating a current of mother and daughter rivalry. A boy however won’t do such a thing to his mother and is only a joy to behold.
However mythical writing is just that, mythical and magical. They come to teach us the wonders of the world and often how to be a better person, have a sounder character, kinder, stronger, even to have more patience. Maybe there’s a little truth in the tales after all.