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TWU Art + Design senior students celebrate the culmination of their four years of study with a special two-part exhibition

TWU School of the Arts, Media + Culture's Art + Design Senior Studio class celebrates the culmination of their four years of study with an exhibition debuting the work of their final year.
 
 
On Perception: Day/Night is a show in two parts—Day and Night—held in the SAMC Gallery inside TWU's Norma Marion Alloway Library, March 31–May 15, 2022.


On Perception: Day

  • March 31–April 21, 2022
  • Opening reception: April 10 at 7:00 p.m
  • Artist talks: April 7 at 6:15 p.m. in the SAMC Gallery

On Perception: Night 

  • April 25–May 15, 2022
  • Opening reception: April 28 at 7:00 p.m.
  • Artist talks: April 14 at 6:15 p.m. in RNT 125

The gallery is open during library hours.


The work presented in On Perception: Day/Night proposes that however it is approached, perception is highly personal, both in the way it is shared and received. Each of these projects encapsulates the ambiguity of perception as they grapple with changing and contrasting realities. 

With words by Emily Goodbrand

The work of eight students, On Perception: Day/Night is a panoply of animation, light, paint, and handcrafted materials where the artists embrace ambiguity through multiple mediums, presenting an amalgamation of perspectives. They propose that perception requires an acceptance of ambiguity, inhabiting the in-between place of seeing and understanding.

The first show, On Perception: Day, which runs from March 31 until April 21, presents the work of Georgia Henkle, Sarah Kate Davis, Emily Goodbrand, and Hannah Kirkham.

Viewers navigate a maze-like VR house through which Henkle explores the effects of VR on our psyches and social lives. “My work was born out of my intrigue for this idea of an ‘embodied internet’, as well as my frustration with the many negative (but largely unavoidable) effects of digital technologies in our lives,” she explains.

Sarah Kate Davis explores curiosity, play, and memory through an exploratory work consisting of a collection of artifacts and handmade field journals. She believes that “Nurturing our curiosities and creating opportunities for free and guided play positively contribute to our communities as honest and generous acts for ourselves and therefore also to others.”
 

Emily Goodbrand uses paintings, drawings, and body prints in graphite to address the complexity of embodiment—being both a body and an immaterial soul. “I grew to recognize the role that self-awareness of the relationship with the body and the spirit has in my understanding of myself and my identity,” she said.

Hannah Kirkham reflects on the crafting heritage her maternal ancestors have participated in, contrasting it with the imperfect work she presents in this show causes her to remark that “No one expects me to hold these traditions, yet I still feel I’m letting something valuable slip through my fingers.”


On Perception: Night, featuring Amy Bowler, Andrea Franks, HyeonJeong Choi, and Zachary Simonyi-Gindele is the second show, running from April 25 until May 15.
 

Amy Bowler explores the passage of time, change, memory, and nostalgia through the layering of animation, ink, and tree rings. She shares that “In the last two years, time has [...] felt shifted. We have been much more aware of the time passing around us than we usually are as we have been forced to slow down and watch it go.”

Andrea Franks’ exploration of craft and intergenerational knowledge led to the creation of videos as records and performances of participation in craft. Franks layers and abstracts the video images, presenting these activities in an unrecognizable way to communicate the loss of this knowledge in our time. She states that she is “joining the dialogue about femininity and feminist tradition through [her] performances.” 

Identity pertaining to the soul and body is the theme of HyeonJeong Choi’s light projections onto paintings and installations. She aims to “turn our focus to the non-material world through an emphasis on the practical power of invisible elements and the theme of life and death.”
 

Zachary Simonyi-Gindele uses hand drawn animation to engage the viewer in a dialogue that questions the distant objectivity of still images. His work “borrows from both the realm of graphic novels and storyboarding.”

The work presented in On Perception: Day/Night proposes that however it is approached, perception is highly personal, both in the way it is shared and received. Each of these projects encapsulates the ambiguity of perception as they grapple with changing and contrasting realities. 


Artist Bios

Amy Bowler is an Art + Design student at Trinity Western University. Her work focuses on the environment and layers of time and experience. Growing up in a small country in Africa gave her a different perspective on these topics and an interest in exploring the challenges and benefits that an intercultural upbringing brings, as well as how that shapes her relationship with the environment. 


​​HyeonJeong Choi is a Korean artist who is currently based in Langley, B.C. She completed her BA in Film Studies and Art + Design in 2022. She has shown her work in several galleries and film festivals in Langley, B.C. With her vast curiosity in art, her practice encompasses various fields of fine arts, graphic design, animation, and filmmaking. This led her to create her own visual language in her practices. She explores our awareness of the transcendent realm by highlighting the existence and power of invisible elements.


Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist Sarah Kate Davis grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Inspired by colour, texture, and shape, her practice primarily explores memory and the gesture of presence. Sarah Kate graduated in 2022 from Trinity Western University with a Bachelor of Arts in Art + Design. Everyday experiences inform her practice, which is continually shifting and changing. She is a visionary and a dreamer in pursuit of connecting people to beauty through design and aesthetics. 


Andrea Franks was born in Eastern Washington, USA, surrounded by farmland and mountains. She is currently completing her bachelor’s degree in Art + Design at Trinity Western University. Andrea has exhibited her work throughout B.C.’s Lower Mainland since 2018. She is an artist who works in many mediums such as drawing, textile work, performance, video, photography, and design work. The subject of these works stems from themes such as loss of culture, domestic life, female experiences, and spiritual matters; these themes are formed by her experience growing up in a rural farm town. Her current work draws from her experiences learning different forms of craft from women in her hometown area and the disappearance of these skills. 


Emily Goodbrand is a recent Art + Design graduate from Trinity Western University, originally from Vermilion, Alberta. In addition to being exhibited in various student exhibitions, she made her curatorial debut at The Reach Gallery Museum in their exhibition, Art on Demand 8.1 in 2022. Her drawing practice explores themes of embodiment, identity, and interiority through the depiction of the human body, rendered in graphite. Her painting practice draws upon landscape imagery, focusing on themes of home, identity, and personal relationships with land. Goodbrand currently lives and works in Langley, B.C.


Georgia Henkle is an interdisciplinary artist who grew up in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and graduated from Trinity Western University in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Art + Design. She is traditionally trained, but has a passion for digital art media, including animation, virtual reality and graphic design. Her practice revolves around themes related to human nature and social interaction. Through her work, she strives to create a space for thought and reflection that will challenge viewers to reflect on their own behaviors related to the issues presented before them. Her work has been featured in art exhibitions at the SAMC Gallery. She has worked in both the design and illustration industries, and she runs her own freelance art business.


Hannah Kirkham is an Art + Design major studying at Trinity Western University. She is interested in how gender roles intersect with art making, and the traditions of women’s visual arts and crafts practices. Her work is process based, and explores her own personal experiences as a woman making art in any media, from drawing to textiles to video. She hopes to spark contemplation around the viewer’s personal experiences with gender roles and the arts. 


Born in Canada and raised in Africa, Zachary Simonyi-Gindele is an illustrator working in Vancouver, B.C. He is currently completing a BA in Art + Design from Trinity Western University with a minor in History. His arresting style of illustration and love of history imbues his work with a broad range of perspectives and experiences, exploring themes throughout his storytelling like conflict, travel, and discovery. Most recently, Zachary worked as an iIllustrator for the student-led Mars' Hill Newspaper and also collaborated with SAMC Theatre and 11:07 Improv to design and illustrate a series of posters promoting their shows.


See past SAMC exhibitions on the SAMC Gallery Exhibitions webpage


About School of the Arts, Music + Culture (SAMC) at Trinity Western University

Trinity Western's SAMC is home to some of the most collaborative people on campus. Professors are people of faith and experts in their fields who are committed to seeing you thrive. As your mentors, they will build a safe and welcoming space where you will be challenged to take bold steps, explore ideas of faith and meaning, and push the boundaries of your discipline—to fearlessly engage with and transform culture. Learn more about pursuing your passion at SAMC.


See also — The Movement of Being: new exhibition by TWU emerging artists presents a ‘visual translation of one’s inner geography’:
 
TWU News


About Trinity Western University

Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier global Christian liberal arts university. We are dedicated to equipping students to discover meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. Drawing upon the riches of the Christian tradition, seeking to unite faith and reason through teaching and scholarship, Trinity Western University is a degree-granting research institution offering liberal arts and sciences as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has four campuses and locations: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, and Ottawa. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.

For media inquiries, please contact: media@twu.ca.