Work by two senior art students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga have been chosen for publication in the 2019 edition of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (UReCA).
Maris Souza was chosen for her “Tr ansl ation less,” her series of photographs, while Arden Craft was selected for her sculpture “Enclosing Spaces.”
UReCA is housed and managed by students in the UTC Honors College, but selections for publication in the National Collegiate Honors Council journal are made by a network of students at colleges and universities across the country.
Souza’s exhibition included several black-and-white photos of her grandmother, many with the word “Saudade,” which means “a sense of longing, melancholy or nostalgia” in Portuguese.
“I wake up and I see myself in my grandmother,” Souza wrote. “I forget things that I shouldn’t. The way she struggles with a different language is the way I struggle with my thoughts. My grandmother navigates in a place that doesn’t understand her language. She can’t share the few memories she still has. I navigate in a place that makes me feel unwelcome and alone.”
The UReCA editorial team said the photo collection “captures the loneliness and language barrier experienced by an immigrant. Whether the images depict the grandmother outside of her home alone or in an ambiguous landscape, they all build up the idea of someone who is having trouble connecting with her surroundings.”
Craft was praised for “the complexity and talent required to execute the piece,” according to the UReCA editorial team. “We rarely receive such interesting and unique pieces from visual art students.”
“The piece works to invade and disrupt the area in which it lives, while experimenting with fluidity in hopes of provoking audience interaction and speculation,” Carden wrote. “The audience is invited to come close to the piece, glance through its unknown spaces and try to imagine where these odd forms could potentially live in the world.”
I’m so proud of our Art students! Creative and inspiring!