Joseph Goodman, Seeing with my fingers, 2023, still from digital video, courtesy the artist.
Beyond the Surface
February 24-April 7, 2023
2023 Feinstein Scholarship Exhibition
presented in partnership with the ICA Chattanooga and UTC Department of Art
Landis Education Gallery, Association of Visual Arts, Chattanooga
(Note: This exhibition is NOT on view at the ICA, but on view at the Association for Visual Arts (AVA), located at 30 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37405.)
Featuring
Joseph Goodman, BFA Photography & Media Art, 2024
&
Savannah Hodges, BFA Sculpture, 2023
About Beyond the Surface and the Feinstein Scholarship Exhibition
Goodman and Hodges are the current awardees of the Lillian B. Feinstein Scholarship in the UTC Department of Art. Each year the Lillian B. Feinstein Scholarship is awarded to two outstanding Art majors, one studying at the upper division and one at the lower division. Named after the late Mrs. Feinstein, who was a noted sculptor in this region, this award is voted on by the faculty of the Art Department and, as such, is indicative of the highest level of performance in studio production in the department. This year, Goodman and Hodges created new individual bodies of work that both respond to texture and surface in their practices.
While thinking about textures, I found myself attracted to the way textures and surface qualities can communicate a story: they can tell us about those who walked before us or the life an object has lived. I am interested in giving these textures and surfaces a platform to tell their own stories through our five senses. I take inspiration from science, organic materials, and natural earth formations, allowing me to recreate familiar phenomena that trigger the senses in a brand-new way.
-Savannah Hodges
What lies beyond the textured surfaces we can perceive? This question led me to consider my own senses, tactile and spiritual, in relation to my artistic practice. In response, I experimented with many new artforms, both sculptural and multimedia, to explore the relationships between each of these senses—the stories hidden in their interactions. In this snapshot of the current state of my work, textures translated through various mediums and faculties were my main writing tool, which allowed me to manifest these stories in physical, interactive spaces.
-Joseph Goodman
About the Artists
Savannah Hodges
Hodges has been honing her skills in sculpture, installation, performance, and video work while completing her degree in Sculpture at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She received the Upper-Division Lillian B. Feinstein Scholarship. Her work has been exhibited in various galleries in Chattanooga including the Apothecary Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Art. She takes inspiration from the unknown. Her interests lie within the human body, materiality, exploitation, the act of performing, and the contradictions that lie within surveillance and the modern world.
Joseph Goodman
Goodman is a student and multidisciplinary artist, mainly working in film, sculpture, photography, performance, and illustration as he works towards his bachelor’s degree in Photo & Media Art at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He received the Lower-Division Lillian B. Feinstein Scholarship. His work has been showcased in several local galleries like the Apothecary Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Art. Joseph is a storyteller, and he is constantly searching for new artistic practices and new universal languages to tell his story. He is interested in spiritualism and the senses and bringing those ideas into conversations of evolution, gender, race, class, the collective, and the individual.
Presented in Partnership
with the Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Chattanooga and the University of Tennessee Chattanooga Department of Art.