Sonia Rosa Kahn
Congratulations to Sonia Rosa Kahn CC’23, who has been named a 2024 - 2025 Mortimer Hays - Brandeis Traveling Fellow!
Sonia Rosa Kahn
Each year, the Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship provides support to students and recently graduated alums in the visual and fine arts, including art history, conservation, studio art and photography, to pursue independent, year-long projects and programs outside of the United States.
Sonia Rosa Kahn is a London-born, New York based artist, who graduated from Columbia College in 2023 with a double major in visual art and art history. As an artist working across various mediums, Sonia repurposes found imagery, memory, and detritus through experimental image-making processes. Exploring the intersection between print and moving image, she manipulates physical film using procedures often associated with printed matter. Subsequently, these films become both visual and tactile artifacts.
This fall Sonia will continue her work as she travels to Riga, Latvia to shoot a documentary reflecting upon the USSR’s occupation of Latvia. Through this project, Sonia aims to incorporate experimental analog methods alongside historic footage from local archives, focusing upon the 50 years of cultural censorship and the subculture of avant-garde filmmaking. Ultimately, Sonia hopes her project will bring further awareness to the Soviet diaspora and contribute to the dialogue of post-Soviet art.
Columbia students and alums interested in learning more about and applying for the Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship and other fellowship programs are encouraged to connect with advisors at Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
Photo credit to Sonia Rosa Kahn.