Fresh Milk welcomes Willoh S. Weiland and Halcyon Macleod

April 16, 2015July 16, 20151 Comment

Fresh Milk is excited to welcome our fifth set of residents for 2015, Australian inter‐disciplinary artists of Caribbean extraction, Willoh S. Weiland and Halcyon Macleod. They will be with us between April 20 – May 23, 2015 working on their collaborative project ‘Crawl Me Blood’, a sound installation inspired by the works of Dominican writer Jean Rhys and her masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea. Read more below:

Willoh S. Weiland and Halcyon Macleod are two artists from Australia who are currently in-residency at the Fresh Milk Platform. During their stay, they are writing and creating a performance and sound work called Crawl Me Blood. As part of their research for the project, they will be conducting a series of interviews with a number of women in Australia and in the Caribbean.

Crawl Me Blood is inspired by the work of Dominican author Jean Rhys, especially her famous book Wide Sargasso Sea, the artists’ own family histories in the Caribbean Region and a feminist reading of the biblical story of Eden.

They are starting their research by focusing on the idea of ‘paradise’; what causes us to long for particular landscapes and how women imagine paradise through creating or visiting gardens, cooking and eating delicious food. They are especially interested in the way food connects us to memories of people and places.

The artists are inviting members of the public to meet with them and talk about these ideas. An audio recording of these conversations will be made. Interviews can be anonymous.

Interviewees will be paid a modest stipend. The artists will be in residence from April 20th and open to arranging meetings on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10am and 5pm.

The artists would like to engage in dialogue with a variety of women, including:

Academic/Writer
Radio host
Performer/ Actor/ Artist
Older woman (60 +)
Middle aged woman (40+)
Younger woman (in her 20s)

If you are interested in participating in this project, please email willoh@aphids.net and halcyonmacleod@gmail.com.

Halcyon Macleod and Willoh S. Weiland.

About the artists:

Willoh S. Weiland (Artistic Director, Aphids) and Halcyon Macleod (Co-Director, My Darling Patricia) are interdisciplinary artists and directors of the independent arts organisations Aphids and My Darling Patricia.

Their mutual interests are in writing and creating contemporary performance works that respond to the site in which they are created and the result of extensive research and development.

They have created works for major Australian Festivals including the Sydney and Darwin International Arts Festivals as well as for prolific presenters such as Performance Space, Carriageworks, Cambelltown Arts Centre, Sydney and the Arts Centre, Arts House and Malthouse Theatre Melbourne.

This residency is supported in part by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Alcorso Foundation and Arts Tasmania.

Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe shares her reflection on Tilting Axis: Showing up as Caribbean creatives

April 15, 2015May 21, 2015Leave a comment

Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe, artist, activist and co-founder of Groundation Grenada, shares her reflections on the conference Tilting Axis: Within and Beyond the Caribbean – Shifting Models of Sustainability and Connectivity which took place at Fresh Milk on February 27-28, 2015. Read an excerpt from her report below:

‘I think it’s an act of rebellion to be a whole person… It’s an act of rebellion to show up as your whole self, and especially the parts that are complex, that are unfinished, that are vulnerable.’ – Courtney Martin

Two weeks before traveling to Tilting Axis: Within and Beyond the Caribbean – Shifting Models of Sustainability and Connectivity at the Fresh Milk Art Platform in Barbados, I listened to a podcast titled The Inner Life of Rebellion, a conversation which included Courtney Martin. During my presentation at Tilting Axis, about the vision and work of Groundation Grenada, I shared the above quote by Martin. Her reflections on the power of being able to make progress even with full recognition that we are imperfect and always in-the-making resonated with me deeply. It is this kind of ‘showing up’ as a whole complex person that Groundation Grenada seeks to support. As an organization our aim is to create safe spaces for people in our communities to explore the fullness of their experiences and express themselves in an environment that honors our differences. Tilting Axis was a unique moment to connect with founders and directors of initiatives that similarly work to support and enhance the growth of the Caribbean’s vast array of voices & creative visions.

Tilting Axis, held from February 27-28, 2015 aimed to promote greater conversations and engagement between artists and professionals working within artist-led initiatives across the wider Caribbean region, build and redefine historical relationships with those in the North, and establish open dialogue with active networks emerging in the Global South.

The space that the organizers Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc., ARC Inc., Res Artis and Pérez Art Museum Miami were able to create was a rich opportunity for discussing challenges and envisioning collaborative solutions. They brought together several of the region’s arts initiatives to engage in face to face conversations. Also present were a number of professionals from outside the region interested in working with Caribbean-based initiatives such as Solange Farkas, founder and director of Videobrasil (Brazil), and N’Goné Fall, a founding member of the Dakar-based collective GawLab (Senegal). For a complete participant list and other details read the official post-conference press release (here).

There were many existing relationships and partnerships in the room and many possibilities for new collaborations discussed in formal sessions and during tea breaks. Technology has been an invaluable tool in facilitating the growth of what feels to me like a tangible movement in the region via the visual arts. Being in the same physical space as such a dynamic group of artists, curators, writers and organizers, and being able to have real conversations, was an invigorating experience. We all showed up as our full selves, open to discussing the complexities we are working with and through. It was an intergenerational setting with cross-pollination between organizations that were founded decades ago and seedling organizations that are now taking root and beginning to bloom.

Read the full report on Malaika’s website here.

Announcing the FRESH MILK ‘My Time’ Local Resident Artist 2015 – Simone Asia

April 14, 2015May 21, 2015Leave a comment

Fresh Milk is very pleased to announce Barbadian artist Simone Asia as the winner of the Fresh Milk ‘My Time’ Local Residency prize for 2015. Congratulations Simone!

Simone’s one-month residency runs from Monday April 13 – Friday May 8, 2015. She sees this period as a “playground for opportunities,” a chance to experiment with surface, scale and technique. She will explore and respond organically to the environment at Fresh Milk to feed the current series of work she has been producing, which is inspired by dreams and reinterpretations of personal experiences.

About Simone Padmore:

Simone Padmore, also known as Simone Asia, is an illustrator who was born on May 2^nd, 1990 in Bridgetown, Barbados. From 2006-2011, Simone attended the Barbados Community College (BCC) where she received her Associate’s Degree in Visual Arts and her Bachelor’s of Fine Art. Attending BCC exposed Simone to many different art forms, techniques and experimentation where she developed a stronger sensibility for drawing and a love for pen and ink.

After college, Simone continued her independent practice and has exhibited in art shows, including The Place Between Here and There, an exhibition of contemporary Barbadian art taking place at The Frame & Art Co. between April 17 – May 16, 2015. She won an incentive award at NIFCA in 2011 and was featured in ARC Magazine, FuriaMag and Caribbean Beat, along with a few online fanzines.

Simone has participated in three residencies to date: a one week residency at Fresh Milk (Barbados) in 2012, one with Projects & Space (Barbados) and one with Alice Yard (Trinidad) in 2014.

Artist Statement:

As an artist, I want to have an honest connection with my work. I gravitate towards ideas about science, the universe, dreams, the mind and experiences. I seek to explore these ideas from a personal perspective, expressing them through very detailed, abstract drawings rendered by pen and ink. With these, I create an alternate reality; my hybrids within my own universe.

My use of detail is based on my belief that I have some type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). My thoughts consume me and I also write a lot, often repetitively. I am very particular in my ways and at times I can be a bit of a perfectionist. The use of detail, however, is not specifically linked to any one series, but to the notion of being disciplined.

I illustrate this way because, even though it can be time consuming, it is a stress reliever. It puts me in a trance-like state where it eludes the concept of time. It also distracts me from my racing thoughts; it is my therapy.

Jordan Clarke’s Residency – Week 3 Blog Post

April 13, 2015May 21, 20152 Comments

Barbadian-Canadian painter Jordan Clarke shares her third blog post about her Fresh Milk residency, continuing to use self-portraiture and exploration of her surroundings for self-discovery and both personal and artistic growth, reckoning with the multiple facets and cultures that comprise her identity. Read more below:

While at Fresh Milk, I have been working through self-portraiture, landscapes, photography and journaling as a means to document my first visit to Barbados. Born in Canada, I am the daughter of a Canadian mother with Scottish and English roots and a Barbadian father who has now spent 75% of his life in Canada. As a result, I possess multiple identities. I see myself as mixed-race, Black and Canadian.

In Barbados, where I have no family members, I feel disconnected and exposed. I am an outsider in my father’s homeland where I had hoped to feel a sense of homecoming and belonging. Not surprisingly, the work I have been producing here is introspective, exploring the theme of self-perception. My double self-portrait in graphite really expresses the sense of vulnerability and sadness I felt soon after my arrival in Barbados.

I have also been looking outwards, exploring landscapes in my work, specifically sky and cloudscapes. I’m attracted to clouds because they are always in movement and constantly changing, creating new formations that never repeat. I also find them to be majestic and beautiful. For me, clouds represent a universal space rather than a specific place, a space that is similar in both Toronto and Barbados.

At the moment, I see landscapes and portraits as two different practices. I had originally intended to insert myself into the landscape to create a connection with the land and Barbados. Interestingly enough, this joining of my body and a still unfamiliar landscape isn’t happening.

This residency is a special opportunity for self-discovery and evolution. I am realizing that change is not always comfortable, but is an essential part of my growth as a woman and as an artist. What is most painful is the feeling that I am missing a large part of my cultural roots and identity.

_______________________________________

This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council.

Intervention IBB Magazine shares Tilting Axis

April 8, 2015May 21, 2015Leave a comment

Instituto Buena Bista (IBB), Curacao shares an article through their Intervention IBB Magazine about the 2015 Tilting Axis conference, which took place on February 27-28 and brought together a number of contemporary arts initiatives from around the Caribbean along with a few international entities to devise an action plan for advancing the region’s creative sector. Read an excerpt from IBB co-founders Tirzo Martha and David Bade below:

First impression

David: To be honest, at first I had a prejudice of what the conference was going to be. Because of my past experiences, I grew accustomed to the fact that most of the time there was a lot of talking, less actions and very few tangible results. But within this short time of 2 days, this was not the case at all. The whole approach and the focus was to come to concrete and clear results. I think this was a good thing and I am positive about this. We had to take steps to get somewhere. They gave us cases we had to work on and present and come up with some real proposals. “Collaboration” and “exchange” are all very nice funding words, but they have been used so much that now they’re becoming empty words. I have every confidence that something will happen this time around.

Tirzo: Two things I find very important about the Tilting Axis conference:

The old guard and the usual faces were absent, and there was fresh blood there. That was refreshing, to have that fresh blood who are open to new ways, perspectives and visions. Another thing I found interesting was that it wasn’t about the artist as individual but about art itself. About the society, the added value of art for the society and how you can contribute to the development of art education and formation through social cultural art projects.

David: we sat in work groups or sub groups and got the questions: Are we just here to meet each other or will we do something from now on? They proposed to me too, now that next year we will have existed for 10 years, to let our art collection travel within the Caribbean region. Now our network has expanded with these new people, the idea to have our art travel in the region visiting all the different art platforms sounds very appealing.

Tirzo: Collaboration is not necessarily in one form only. It can also be to assist or to support. For example: a lot of art initiatives say they have a lack of financial means. They don’t have money for a website for example. To let some company make a website can costs thousands of dollars, but if for example we at IBB can make a website for another art initiative we can support each other in this way. We can exchange our services, knowledge and capacities to one another, as everyone is good at one thing. It’s much cheaper and by doing this we can also generate funds.

It was of great satisfaction to meet and speak with people from the French speaking islands, Martinique, and also to acknowledge the presence of a representative from the Dominican Republic.

Read the full article on Intervention IBB Magazine here.