The creative works of four TWU students are being shown this month at the Fort Gallery in Fort Langley, B.C.
TWU artists Calvin Bergen, Amy Bowler, HyeonJeong Choi (Bella), and Emily Goodbrand join students from two other Fraser Valley post-secondary institutions in featuring their works in a group exhibition running now through March 12, 2022.
The exhibition is titled, After Apple-Picking, inspired by a Robert Frost poem of the same name, in which the poet alludes to the daily toil and labour of life. Echoing the poem’s theme, this exhibition seeks to highlight the faithful work and effort required to be an artist.
HyeonJeong Choi majors in Arts, Media + Culture with a double concentration in Film studies and Art + Design. The fourth year student from Seoul, South Korea shares that her dream is to establish an animation studio for Christian youth, an ambition that has led her to take various courses in film, animation, and fine arts.
"I thought that the sense of isolation and loneliness [my film] conveys is universal, especially as our society has become more hyper-individualistic.”
— HyeonJeong (Bella) Choi, Arts, Media + Culture major
Featured at the Fort Gallery is HyeonJeong’s experimental film, titled, “Kodokushi,” which won the award for audience favourite at last year’s Cinergy, a student film festival of TWU’s School of the Arts, Media + Culture (SAMC).
HyeonJeong explains that kodokushi is a Japanese term that refers to people dying alone and remaining undiscovered for a long period of time. “In Korea, this phenomenon occurs not only in the elderly but also in the younger generation, and these cases have further increased due to the pandemic,” she noted.
“Even though these cases might not be common all over the world, I thought that the sense of isolation and loneliness it conveys is universal, especially as our society has become more hyper-individualistic,” she said.
"In photography, and traditional portraiture, the viewer observes one angle, one perspective. I strove to convey movement and several angles, a truer depiction, emulating the difference between photography and video."
— Emily Goodbrand, Art + Design major
Emily Goodbrand is a fourth year Art + Design student, originally from Vermilion, A.B. She shares that she chose to study Art + Design because art has been her lifelong passion and pursuit.
Inspired by the mystery of human life and the human body, Emily has created a portrait, on display at the Fort Gallery. "Portraiture is frequently static," she explains, "In photography, and traditional portraiture, the viewer observes one angle, one perspective. I strove to convey movement and several angles, a truer depiction, emulating the difference between photography and video."
She continues, "In depicting movement, I am displaying the head in an almost scientific light – a study of anatomy."
Through being in the Art + Design program, Emily has gained greater insight into an artist’s role in the world. Emily’s plan for the future is to be working closely with galleries, whether as an exhibiting artist or in another role within the gallery, such as curating or working as a preparator.
This year, Emily is getting a head start in her chosen profession. In addition to exhibiting at the Fort Gallery, she is also the current Emerging Curator at the Reach Museum in Abbotsford.
“I’m passionate about the work that galleries do to connect artists with their communities.”
— Calvin Bergen, Art + Design major
Calvin Bergen, fifth year Art + Design student from Abbotsford B.C., says that he chose TWU’s program “to seek further development as an artist of faith, in dialogue with other like-minded students and professors.”
Calvin’s dream as an artist is to have a studio practice for abstract painting, adding, “I’m passionate about the work that galleries do to connect artists with their communities.”
The painting that Calvin has on display at the Fort Gallery, “The Voice is a Fretless Instrument,” is the first from an ongoing series that he started in 2021. “I view my abstract paintings like maps,” he wrote in his artist’s statement, “but not in the representational sense; rather, in the sense that maps are, to a degree, abstractions of place.”
“Painting is a process of mind mapping, of tracing out an inner landscape, where thoughts and feelings are given coordinates on the canvas, and brushstrokes act as desire paths.”
To learn more about the exhibition, After Apple-Picking, visit the Fort Gallery’s website, or visit the gallery located at 9048 Glover Road in Langley, B.C.
See also — TWU emerging artists respond to the complex and constantly shifting realities of living and studying during a global pandemic:
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About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier Christian liberal arts university dedicated to equipping students to establish meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. It is a fully accredited 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: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, and Ottawa. TWU emphasizes academic excellence, research, and student engagement in a vital faith community committed to forming leaders to have a transformational impact on culture. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.