Manon VanScoder (b.1992) is an artist and photographer currently residing in Toledo, Ohio. She creates short and long-form works related to memory, personal mythology, and investigation. She is currently working to create a community-based photography and film lab in Toledo. VanScoder received her Bachelor of Arts in film production. She has recently completed an artist residency with the Baltic Analog Lab in Riga, Latvia.
But The Sun’s Been Quite Kind
But The Sun’s Been Quite Kind is a body of work investigating my relationship with my mother and her own relationship with herself. My mother struggled with mental health issues, bipolar and borderline personality disorder, throughout her life which led to her addiction to alcohol and chemical substances, and later, to her incarceration. In early spring of 2016, she became comatose under uncertain circumstances and has been on life support in a nursing home since then. As I became more aware of her past and current life, I reflected on all of the elements of who she was as a person, from childhood to her loneliness. This work reflects on her in all forms, as a person who has and continues to struggle. I utilize images of my environment, along with archives of her life found while exploring what had been left behind. It is an attempt to render a version of her that I can confront, and a version of her that I can forgive.
To view more of Manon VanScoder’s work please visit her website.