UNSPOKEN TRUTHS

Unspoken Truths 

Art & Design 

Phylisicia J. Lundy 

Valdosta State University 

Sponsor: Prof. Lindsay Godin  

 

Americus, GA is a small traditional southern courthouse town in southwest Georgia. As a native of Americus, GA, and an advocate for social change, I am exploring past events and how controversy feeds division within the community. I drew inspiration for Unspoken Truths (c. 2023) from African American woman artist Elizabeth Catlett’s 1946 Negro Woman print series that visualizes events between dominant and minority groups in the South that grow generational distrust, and Hannah Hoch’s 1919 Cut with a Kitchen Knife photomontage, which inspired the collage placement process, where I have compositionally organized a variety of visual objects to convey a message or story. I fuse graphic design, photography, and craft arts using a textural approach by doing 5 photomontages depicting stories aiding generational distrust in Americus’ community while expressing through symbolism how I was impacted in my youth and early adult years. Each symbol acts as a social cue in American culture providing familiarity and spreading social awareness in the local and regional southern communities. With a combination of social and personal aspects of my Southern culture, I can promote dialogue that can defuse the cycle of distrust. Overall, promoting social investigation with conversation will open the dialogue for change.