Monstrance.

Diana Thorneycroft | Opened Friday, September 17, 1999 | St. Norbert Arts Centre | A sensual installation exploring society's devotion to the dead

Diana Thorneycroft is a Winnipeg artist who teaches at the University of Manitoba School of Art. She was born in 1956 in Claresholm, Alberta. She received her B.F.A. Honours degree from the School of Art University of Manitoba in 1979 and her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980. She has since established an international reputation through exhibitions across Canada and the United States, and in galleries in Edinburgh, Helsinki, Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney, Vienna and Belgrade. Her work has been the subject of Canadian national radio documentaries and a CBC national documentary for television. She is the recipient of numerous awards including an Established Artist grant from the Canada Council, several Senior Arts Grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and a Fleck Fellowship from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Monstrance is a provocative two-part installation by Winnipeg artist Diana Thorneycroft. Because of Thorneycroft’s use of rotting rabbit carcasses in the exhibition, journalists, religious groups, animal rights activists and the general public loudly protested, revolting against the artist's effrontery. Thorneycroft is well-known for her compelling, theatrical photographs revealing the darker side of the human psyche, this installation was a new direction for her and forms part of a larger photographic project.