Barbadian art historian and member of the Fresh Milk Team, Natalie McGuire, wrote an article for the AICA Caraïbe du Sud online blog discussing gender representation in the Caribbean. The piece highlights the work of Fresh Milk’s resident artist from October-December 2012, Alberta Whittle, and Barbadian artist Ewan Atkinson.
Click here to read the full article!
Video shot and edited by Sammy Davis
FRESH MILK X was held this past Sunday, February 3rd 2013, featuring our most recent resident artist, Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe showcasing her new film created during her residency, with a guest performance by Yardie Boy Theatre’s Kupakwashe and actor/director Russell Watson.
Malaika’s film titled ‘Off Track, Moving Forward,’ was a collaboration with Barbadian actor and Managing Director of Mustardseed Productions Varia Williams, and delves into the whirlwind of non-stop thoughts that everyone copes with in daily life, and the possibilities of allowing ourselves to just ‘be’:
Within the context of a global culture of “progress,” this video piece (4:30 sec) poses questions about our internal landscapes, as we navigate this rushing stream of forward motion. In the midst of it all, we often find ourselves spinning in whirlpools of our own thinking: caught up in our past experiences and our potential future ones. What are the repercussions of denying ourselves the opportunity to cultivate a sense of completeness? How do we find satisfaction within the smallest moment, before running off on a trail of other thoughts?
We are ‘doing’ all the time, often even when we think we are not. We are constantly consuming materials, ideas, other people and their perceptions, with a skilful ease. So ‘connected’ that it becomes easy to confuse solitude with loneliness or boredom. Even in the company of others we often fall under the deadening weight of our doubts, fear and anxiety. We keep ourselves occupied, thinking, but as we feel the familiar murkiness of negativity, what happens when we allow ourselves to pause, become aware and just sit with whatever arises… What are the possibilities then? – Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe
Yardie Boy Theatre presented an excerpt from the play ‘Prisoner,’ also written by Kupakwashe:
Set in prison, John a convicted murderer is on death row being guarded by his older and unforgiving brother Winslow. A 25 minute play full of intensity, graphic in nature and volatile in words. Prisoner is a socio-political play that rides on the themes of ‘big brother is watching’ and ‘being a brother’s keeper.’
There were Q&A sessions held with all of the evening’s participants. As always, it was a pleasure for Fresh Milk to make new connections, and we will miss having Malaika’s presence and energy in the studio – but FRESH MILK X provided a fitting send off!
All Photographs © Dondré Trotman http://www.dondretrotman.com/
The journal Macomère is putting out its second open call for visual art projects from artists for the special issue on Contemporary Women Artists, coming out in Fall 2013.
New Deadline: April 1st 2013
For more information on criteria and how to submit, click here: MACOMÈRE Second Open Call
Malaika has a fantastic programme of events planned for the Community Outreach component of her residency with FRESH MILK! Take a look at the poster to see what she has in store.
I have been at the Fresh Milk Contemporary Art Platform in Barbados for a week now. This is my first experience as a resident artist and I don’t believe there is a better space for me to be incubated at this stage of my journey. As someone who usually spends endless hours moving about to the yoga classes I teach, meetings for The Goat Dairy, interviews for my research on contemporary perspectives on the Grenada Revolution or helping my family with some errand…. it feels incredibly refreshing to spend my time between the Fresh Milk space and the apartment I am staying in just a short walk from here. This little nook in Barbados is offering me solitude that I have not embraced in a while. I love connecting and sharing with people, it energizes me, but I also know that I deny myself necessary alone time in the midst of nurturing others. Here I’m finding balance, building connections with incredible artists, activists and critical thinkers in Barbados while also carving out space for myself.
The challenge that I have set for myself in this residency is to create, in essence, my first short film of this nature. This is the first time I am phrasing it this way, probably because acknowledging the monumental nature of that task has the potential to scare me into inaction. But, I am past that stage. Sure, I have manicou in the headlights kinds of moments, however, as I continue to grow, I can snap out of those moments sooner and meet these beautiful challenges head on. A wonderful friend recently reminded me that often times when we are faced with things that, for whatever reason, arouse fear or anxiety, our instinct is to lean back. But consider the power of leaning in. What happens when we quiet our inner critic and open ourselves up to the risk of utter miserable failure? Well, realistically we are also making ourselves available to the possibility of utterly blissful success, in whatever ways we define success.
This week at Fresh Milk has been a lot of brainstorming as I begin to take this film from concept through the stages of development to a final piece. The last time I did this was under extreme circumstances but was actually also in Barbados, at the Caribbean Tales film festival in April 2012. I collaborated with B.l.i.p productions from Jamaica to participate in the 48 hour film challenge. It was such an intense experience to have to conceptualize, script, cast, shoot, edit AND render out a film in exactly 48 hours. On top, of that I didn’t know Henry and Adjani, the creators of B.l.i.p, at all before the festival – but the processes brought us together in the most powerful way. In an experience like that, the time is so tight that you just have to give yourself over to the creative process and we did. People felt it and the film was honored with the award of best director and screened as one of the top entries. This experience is different of course. I have the time to let this film develop in a unique organic process. I have the support of Annalee, a contemporary artist and director of Fresh Milk, and I am reaching out to my creative colleagues as well. One of the values of this experience is being able to get feedback and critiques. I miss that deeply from my days in the Studio Art program at Smith College. So, this week has been a process of building on previous experiences of ‘leaning in’ and I continue to give myself permission to ‘lean into’ this opportunity that I have been presented with.
Follow Malaika on Instagram @malaikabsl
fresh milk barbados 