{"id":21087,"date":"2025-05-06T15:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&p=21087"},"modified":"2025-05-06T15:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:10:13","slug":"a-creative-collision-at-the-traina-center","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/06\/a-creative-collision-at-the-traina-center\/","title":{"rendered":"A creative collision at the Traina Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Senior studio art and screen studies students showcase final works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Traina Center for the Arts came alive the night of Tuesday, April 29, as the annual screen studies<\/a> film screening and the studio art<\/a> senior thesis show provided an interdisciplinary, multi-media celebration of art from Visual & Performing Arts<\/a> students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senior thesis show, \u201cVanishing Point,\u201d which opened April 23 and is on view through May 19, features eleven artists across various mediums and scales. Just inside the Traina doors is a piece by Ren\u00e9e Knowles \u201925 titled \u201cPOWIEDZ CO\u015a,\u201d which includes lace curtains, family photos, and a projector showing a short film. \u201cPOWIEDZ CO\u015a\u201d translates to \u201csay something\u201d in Polish, and the project explores Knowles\u2019 relationship with the language and with her Polish grandmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018POWIEDZ CO\u015a\u2019 traverses my relationship with someone whose connection transcended language. Inspired by early experimental and avant-garde film, moving images unravel this connection,\u201d Knowles says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"lace
\u201cPOWIEDZ CO\u015a” by Ren\u00e9e Knowles ’25. Photo by Natalie Hoang \u201925, MBA \u201926.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"student
Ren\u00e9e Knowles \u201925 with senior project \u201cPOWIEDZ CO\u015a.” Photo by Natalie Hoang \u201925, MBA \u201926.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition also includes \u201cthey told me it was normal\u201d by AJ Orringer \u201925, which comprises a series of painted canvas panels, suspended from the ceiling, depicting different aspects of Orringer\u2019s body and \u201cthe effect of sexual trauma on the body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI combined painting and embroidery to show how visceral these memories are,\u201d Orringer says. \u201cThe front piece, called \u2018Who Am I?\u2019, is meant to physically portray the barrier I place between memories and the external world, and the smaller paintings connected by red thread show how my being, both physically and spiritually, is affected by the weight of what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slashed and stitched-together panels move as one and draw the viewer through the suspended layers of painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Ferrari \u201925 has created a series of collaged square photo panels altered with paint, titled \u201cCollages Rearranged by Chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy process of creation and the resulting collages are a contradiction of control. The instructions are intentionally planned yet contain arbitrary decision systems that force chance and randomness,\u201d Ferrari says. \u201cThis produces an outcome that is unpredictable, though its general look and effect is guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The instructions, Ferrari says, began as a way to encourage himself to complete the works and not remain paralyzed by decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"students
Screen studies students at the annual screen studies film festival.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like the mixed-media work of the studio art senior thesis show, the screen studies film screening showcased works of multiple mediums. The projects grew out of courses led by faculty from disciplines often considered to be distinct from filmmaking, including Creative Writing Professor Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez<\/a>, a poet and novelist, and Studio Art Professor Jan Johnson<\/a>, an interdisciplinary artist, and Studio Art Professor James Maurelle<\/a>, a sculptor and interdisciplinary artist. Screen Studies Professor Soren Sorensen<\/a> and Gutmann-Gonzalez, Johnson, and Maurelle hosted the screening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The energy in the room Tuesday was so joyful and celebratory,” says Sorensen. “I have to thank my colleagues in studio art and creative writing for inspiring our students’ wildly creative and mischievous films and helping to make the end of this semester so special and memorable.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zeke Fairley \u201925<\/a> premiered the film \u201cFrom the Cabin,\u201d a short suspenseful drama in which a young man tries to make an impression on his pizza delivery driver, to disastrous effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis film has been my main priority for the past year. In that time, I wrote the script, built the set, filmed the movie, and edited it, all with an incredible amount of help,\u201d Fairley says. \u201cWe filmed between Vermont and Worcester from mid-January to late February, and I expended more energy than I ever have in my entire life. This project could not have happened without the support of my whole crew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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\"student
Angel Rojas \u201925 and Screen Studies Professor Soren Sorensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"black
Still of \u201cFrom the Cabin\u201d by Zeke Fairley \u201925. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Angel Rojas \u201925 premiered the film \u201cChannel Surfing,\u201d an experimental documentary that preserves a family’s diasporic history from Peru to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two films are honors thesis projects. The showing emphasized both the connections between the screen studies, studio art, and creative writing communities \u2014 and between students and their loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I became quite emotional as Angel Rojas’ thesis film concluded,\u201d says Sorensen. \u201cThe crowd was absolutely roaring, and Angel was hugging their sibling, who is featured in the film. I lost it. I’m just glad I brought tissues.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night also included a film from the Text & Image course taught by Johnson and Gutmann-Gonzalez, titled \u201cThree Horses Named Ren\u00e9e.\u201d This experimental short uses the cameraless technique of direct film manipulation. Students, working directly on the surface of 16mm film, incorporated techniques such as printing, drawing, scratching, painting, image and text transfer, splicing, cutting, collage, and sewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Experimental Production class, taught by Maurelle, presented a series of experimental shorts that explore the visual landscape via multichannel, title sequence, essay film, and appropriated footage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"art
Senior thesis work by Wynne Dromey \u201925, MBA \u201926. Photo by Natalie Hoang \u201925, MBA \u201926.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"student
Wynne Dromey \u201925, MBA \u201926. Photo by Natalie Hoang \u201925, MBA \u201926.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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