FOTA's Twilight Tea Spices Up Fall Quarter
by Alexandra Fiorentino-Swinton
Looking for art on campus that isn’t hanging in a gallery? Look no further than The Festival of the Arts. A Registered Student Organization (RSO) that aims to promote art and creativity on campus, FOTA supports UChicago student artists via exhibitions and fellowship programs. We spoke to a few of the student artists about their artistic inspirations and exhibited works in “Twilight Tea,” a pop up gallery in the McCormick Lounge at the Reynolds Club.
Kuba Sokolowski, Executive Director
“This year's Twilight Tea gallery was FOTA's celebration of the creativity present among student artists at UChicago. We aimed to bring the campus together for a night of soothing music and hot drinks to escape the dropping fall temperatures and find some inspiration and beauty in the artists' pieces. As usual, we were blown away by the quality of the contributors' work, and we look forward to seeing what creative proposals FOTA will receive for our programming later this school year.”
Second year Jimin Kim is a second year Economics and Art History major in the college. Both a member of FOTA Board, helping to organize and execute events, as well as a contributing artist, she is passionate about increasing awareness on underrepresented art forms and preserving traditional arts in East Asia.
“My work focuses on the symbol of an "odd eye" that represents both traditional and contemporary cultural phenomena. This symbol demonstrates that traditional culture is not just a thing of the past, but rather can harmoniously come together with contemporary ideas. By incorporating the traditional Korean icons with contemporary designs, I use various media and techniques to portray how the two seemingly distinctive styles can create a unique harmony.”
Majda Al Malki is a second year from Oman, majoring in Economics and Public Policy and minoring in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. She has been painting ever since she was a child, exploring various genres, such as portraiture, manga art, Islamic geometry and Arabic calligraphy.
Her works for Twilight Tea were as diverse as her artistic interests, including portraits, the jellyfish she saw in Japan, Islamic geometry reflecting her contemplations on infinity, and a quote in Arabic calligraphy translating to “Who Sails Across The Ocean is not Afraid of Drowning.”
Jad Dashan is a third year in the College, double majoring in Chemistry and Art History. They are interested in pursuing conservation and curatorial work, and particularly fascinated with ideas of preservation vs. degradation.
“While taking Dr. Maria Kokkori’s ‘Modern & Contemporary Materialities’ class, I’ve been thinking more about making things that speak to their own construction and components, but also about what it means to destroy ‘artwork’ and subject my self portraits to material processes that negate them–tearing them, burning them, drowning them... This piece is a work in progress down that route.”
Visit FOTA’s facebook page to learn more about their upcoming Winter and Spring shows.
All photos courtesy of Bonnie Hu.