Sarah Trad - 2019 Fall Resident
Sarah Trad is a video artist and curator who explores the relationship between subjective and objective emotionality, navigating daily life and relationships while faced with mental illness and breaking down stereotypes of gender and narrative. Her work also highlights how mental illness and coming from marginalized backgrounds intersects with internal emotional worlds. The living embodiment of the correlation between chronic depression and binge-watching practices, her work appropriates and manipulates found footage from movies, music videos and television. Trad’s work uses recognizable narrative structures to be viewed in and outside the academy of art, as well as comment on the individual’s relationship to pop culture. Sarah has participated in other residencies, such as the 77Art Residency in Rutland, Vermont and is a recipient of the Carol N. Schmuckler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film. Sarah’s work has been shown at The Warehouse Gallery (Syracuse, NY), Kitchen Table Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Gravy Studio and Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) and the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY). She is currently a part of the Philadelphia artist-run gallery, Little Berlin. She lives and works in Philadelphia, PA with her German Shepherd, Vulcan, who she is training to be an emotional support animal.
While in residence, Sarah continued a series of personal work that focuses on the intersection of mixed race heritage and personal family trauma. Sarah's work throughout 2019 has used fibers, photography and video to explore the idea of inherited grief and mental illness, family and racial identity and accessing Arabic heritage in contemporary America.
Nuno Felting Workshops
Sarah taught a series of workshops at the Islamic Center of Muncie and with the Ball State University Metals Guild, educating on her inspiration and process in creating Nuno-felted and soft sculptural works inspired by Middle Eastern pattern design. Each workshop explored the Nuno-felting process, which is physical and collaborative at times. Since Ball State University does not have a dedicated fibers department, the felting process was an intriguing new fabrication technique for students across the 3D area. The workshop at the Islamic Center of Muncie culminated in an artist talk and presentation of the work made during the workshop. The artists shared their experience in the workshop during the monthly community dinner.
Sarah also worked with co-fellow Sydney Pursel on a two person exhibition, Threads, in the PlySpace Gallery. Images of the exhibition are available on Sydney Pursel’s resident profile page. In addition, Trad, Pursel, and visiting artist Toby Kaufmann-Buhler presented a panel discussion, Heritage in Practice, at Ball State University, moderated by Tania Said.
