SOVA Senior Student Show
Elle Mandell
George Jung
Sara Fortier
Elle Mandell:
How to be a Badass
My work reflects the fight for women’s equality in and out of the art world. I use diverse mediums ranging from concrete and knives to wood and flowers. Unstretched canvas weaves pieces together as an ode to women in the traditional American textile industry, and my paintings reference propaganda banners from the Women’s Rights March on Washington DC in 2017.
I express female forms through geometric shapes that enlighten viewers to see the otherworldly potential for women empowerment. I aim for women to feel that their voice, too, can be heard. In light of America’s recent political climate, it is time to use our voice to instigate change.
George Jung:
Closer
This series is about the emotional, mental, and shared experience of sex as well as its physical and tactile presence.
This series was also made to acknowledge the importance of sex in queer communities, where sexual preference is usually what makes you queer. In addition to providing an underrepresented group with familiar imagery, this work is intended to soften that boarder, to show something we are all familiar with, and to express feelings we are all familiar with in the hopes that it will both open up sex and queerness to a more accepted and discussed place.
Sara Fortier:
Iusus Naturae
The mish-mash of both two and three-dimensional aspects seen in my work plays with the boundary between real space and imaginary space in a way that reflects the real effects of the imagined on the physical.
I’ve chosen to take the parts of myself that I struggle with, and personify them as the creatures and monsters on these panels, in an effort to study them. Their forms then no longer allude me. By reflecting the narrative I’ve built around them, and then ultimately relating it to fantastical myth, I ultimately realize that it is a myth that these creatures are separate from myself.
The panels reflect exaggerated aspects of my subconscious. They are a mix up of black and white paint, with sculptural elements unique to each one. Found objects specific to each peace are adhered to the surface.
