Thais Francis’ Residency – Week 1 Blog Post

May 26, 2015Leave a comment

Trinidad-born, Brooklyn based multi-disciplinary performance artist and writer, and current artist in the Fresh Milk International Residency Programme, Thais Francis reflects on the first week in Barbados. She writes about her hesitation to confront her “quarter life identity issues” with a group of eager students from Workmans Primary School. After an eventful time with the children, she focuses on the challenges and rewards of writing her first feature screenplay. Read more below:

“You look like my auntie!”

“I look like your aunt?”

“I like how you does say Auntie…say it again?”

“Ummm…aunt?”

“Where you from?”

Their names are Nyesha and Ramaya- one is bedecked in her brownie outfit, the other wears her school uniform topped with three plaits and ribbons. Nyesha thinks I look like her aunt, and Ramaya has picked up on my accent. She asks me the question that I dread answering. What do I tell her? Do I go into a spiel about emigrating from Trinidad…or do I just say Maryland? My brain goes into overdrive and my “quarter life identity issues” resurface. More classmates join them, and all stare at me expectantly. Innocently invasive brown eyes filled with questions and excitement. They are reminders of the beauty of being 9 years old.

“I live in America”.

They are satisfied with my response. We then all walk over to the open field.

When I first saw the students at Workman’s Primary school, I was elated. The ribbons, uniforms, brown skin-all images of a past life tucked away in the folds of mind. However, it wasn’t hard to remember and transform with them. With Ms. Bradshaw’s class of 17 students I found myself using theater, music and dance to add more color to the kaleidoscope of their lives. We used our bodies to mime and form shapes that were parts of speech; we became a human orchestra, and created a dance to work on focus and memory. They referred to me as “ma’am”. After the class, I thought about that. “What is a ma’am and how did I become one?”

In other news, here in Barbados, I have learned how to light a stove, with a match. Like, I can strike a match and light a stove. I’ll be sure to show my granny this new skill when I visit- she’ll be impressed.

However, the main reason I am here is to work on my first feature screenplay. It’s actually weird, and frustrating, but sometimes cool, sometimes I like what I’m saying…most times I don’t. Mostly I’m excited to complete it, and then have people read it and rip it to shreds in a few weeks. I’m still figuring out what I’m saying- but I’m really into it the overarching idea, and the realness of the characters. I’m at page 78, luckily I worked on this A LOT in Trinidad and Abu Dhabi a few months ago-so I’m really happy I’m not starting from scratch. It makes this process less overwhelming.

Fresh Stops: Matthew Clarke up next!

May 22, 2015May 22, 2015Leave a comment

Fresh Milk and Adopt A Stop conclude the first edition of the Fresh Stops collaborative project with Matthew Clarke‘s piece ‘Hardears Universe’. In an attempt to bring art into the public space, six artists were commissioned to produce original artwork for benches that have been appearing at varied locations around the island. ‘Hardears Universe’ will soon be revealed at a location near you.

The other participating artists included Evan Avery, Versia Harris, Mark King, Simone Padmore and Ronald Williams. This project creates visibility for the work of emerging creatives, allowing the public to encounter and interact with their pieces in everyday life, generating interest and inviting dialogue about their practices.

About ‘Hardears Universe’:

Hardears Universe showcases a collection of characters from the ‘Hardears World’ featured in my graphic novels. It is a place of fantasy populated by characters from Caribbean folklore.

About Matthew Clarke:

Matthew Clarke‘s passion for art started at a young age, and he began participating in the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) while attending St. Michael’s School. Through the Festival, he achieved bronze, silver, gold and incentive awards, and went on to be the recipient of the Prime Minster’s Scholarship for Visual Art in 2003. Clarke completed his Associate Degree in Visual Art at the Barbados Community College (BCC) which earned him a Barbados Exhibition for tertiary studies, and in 2009 he obtained a Bachelor Degree with honours in Graphic Design at the same institution. He has freelanced for various design agencies (Virgo, 809, RED Advertising, G and A Communication, RCA) and worked at the Nation Publishing Company on the Attitude Magazine, creating its logo and design. He has also worked at Banks Holdings Limited (BHL), where he was appointed Internal Web Designer in charge of the Banks Beer website.

In addition to working on independent projects, he has been working as a graphic designer at RED Advertising and PR Agency as of 2011, where he is currently Deputy Creative Director. He is the co-owner and principle of a Caribbean comic company called Beyond Publishing, which has published over 22 books sold digitally and in print, both locally and internationally.

Halcyon Macleod and Willoh S. Weiland’s Residency – Week 4 Blog Post

May 21, 2015July 16, 2015Leave a comment

Australian resident artists Willoh S. Weiland and Halcyon Macleod share their fourth blog post about their Fresh Milk residency. This week Willoh & Halcyon continued their search for the elusive ghost of Jean Rhys, hoping to get clues from the “Queen of Barbados.” Rhys’ life is used as a metaphor for feelings of displacement and as a reminder that the personal voice is indeed political, particularly regarding the validity of art. Read more below:

Jean Rhys & Wide Sargasso Sea. Portrait by Teresa Chilton

Our last week in Barbados has seen a wonderful anxiety as the process has been accelerated and we realise that we have only moments left on this island before we fly home. The growing cache of audio files have started to appear in their true form, as an incomplete sketch of a place and people, with some parts coloured-in vividly and the rest remaining an outline.

The week has forced reflections on the interview process and how this is best done. At the end of every hour we spent interviewing, we wished for more. More time, more thought, better questions, less politeness, more anecdotes, and more friction. We have learnt that the peculiar intimacy of the interview is a whole art in itself. Coming to like each other is a quicker process than how we come to disagree.

Jean Rhys. Photograph courtesy of Bloomsbury

Jean Rhys. Image sourced from TheDominican.net

Writer and journalist Gay Talese, in an interview in New New Journalism talks about ‘the art of hanging out’ and how he followed Frank Sinatra for two years to write his seminal essay Frank Sinatra Has A Cold. This was the art of both constantly reminding the subject that they are being watched, questioned, scrutinised and gently, gently disappearing into the background.

In our last interview we met the Queen of Barbados, a woman in her 80s who regaled us with her adventurous life story whilst sitting amongst an amazing collection of Caribbean modern art. Who can say they have lived in Casablanca? She told us about her mother who, at the turn of the century in Barbados, would jog miles in her swimsuit, and even started a women’s group as an avenue to write plays and look after other women’s children. She was another remarkable Bajan woman, ahead of her time. This same lady had also stayed in Jean Rhys’ house in Dominica. Our ghost hunting continued…

Jean Rhys’ house in Roseau, Dominica. Image sourced from The Wander Life Blog

We have looked for Jean Rhys everywhere. She is inimitable and elusive as ever. Yet she has permeated every interview, beyond questions of race and class. The feeling of being outside life or misplaced evoked the reflective state that we often enter in order to mine our own lives for meaning. As one woman we met this week described, she loved Wide Sargasso Sea because she belonged nowhere. This is so common a feeling to our century. It is what connects being Australian with the migration patterns of the Caribbean and the cultural hybridity of the islands.

What is so important about Rhys’ voice as a writer is the brutal gaze, which she turns on herself and her own experiences. It is the unflinching ability to ask what is this and why?

As we contemplate going back to Australia where the validity of art and, in particular, its ability to be political is being blatantly attacked by our government, we are reminded in these interviews that the personal voice is political. Each of these interviews and the stories they have shared has been individual examples of how each life, on reflection, shows clearly its own courage.

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

Versia Harris travels to Casa Tomada, Sao Paulo

May 20, 2015May 21, 2015Leave a comment

We are excited to announce that Barbadian artist Versia Harris will be going to Sao Paulo, Brazil for seven weeks on Sunday, May 24, 2015 for a residency with Casa Tomada.

This collaborative programme organized between Fresh Milk and Casa Tomada will see Versia working alongside Brazilian artist Janaina Wagner, interacting with arts professionals, producing and showcasing her work, exploring the Brazilian art scene and looking into the possibility of furthering her studies in Sao Paulo.

Congratulations, Versia! We look forward to keeping up with your residency as it progresses!

About Versia Harris:

Versia Harris is a Barbadian artist living and working in Weston, St, James, Barbados. She received her BFA in Studio Art in 2012 and was awarded The Lesley’s Legacy Foundation Award, an annual prize given to the top graduate. She participated in her first residency with Projects and Space in 2011 and has since completed a residency with another local organization called Fresh Milk, followed by a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and residencies at the Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao and Alice Yard, Trinidad in late 2013. In 2014, Versia’s work was featured in the IV Moscow International Biennial for Young Art themed ‘A Time for Dreams’. She was also apart of the follow up exhibition ‘MOMENTUM_InsideOut screening of ‘A Time For Dreams’, Berlin. Her animation ‘They Say You Can Dream a Thing More Than Once’ was awarded ‘Best New Media Film’ at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, 2014. Versia tackles perceptions of fantasy in contrast to the reality of her invented characters.

Work by Evan Avery in Casa Tomada's 'A Casa Recebe' project

About Casa Tomada:

Founded in 2009, Casa Tomada is an independent space for practice, research and reflections of artistic nature. Concerned with the entire process, instead of focusing exclusively on the final work of art, Casa Tomada encourages discussion about emerging contemporary art, not only stimulating the development of artistic and theoretical practices motivated by shared experience, but acting as a catalyst for experiences and connections between artists, researchers, and other independent artistic initiatives. During these years, Casa Tomada organized 8 residences, 2 in partnership with Videobrasil, and one international exchange between São Paulo and London with the Delfina Foundation. Casa Tomada has also run other kinds of programs, all based on young artistic production, connections between different spaces and interdisciplinarity.

Simone Asia’s Residency – Week 4 Blog Post

May 13, 2015May 21, 2015Leave a comment

Simone Asia, current artist in Fresh Milk’s 2015 ‘My Time’ Local Residency programme, shares her fourth and final blog post. This week Simone drew on experiences she has garnered throughout the residency, giving them an ethereal perspective based on the elements and their symbolism. Continuing to experiment with colour, materials and techniques has been critical to her time here, and led to artistic discovery and growth. Read more below:

This was the final week of the residency, and overall I think I have benefited from this experience.

I did not go ahead with a wall drawing this time around. However, I experimented with shapes that I cut out to use as minimal collages. I wanted to explore the theme of elements that affected me either positively or negatively while I was here on site. These elements were water, earth and wind.

My thought process was initiated by the element of water. It affected my life by damaging most of my devices, while the rain affected my mood and joints. On a positive note, my experience at Fresh Milk led me to be more connected to nature (the element of earth) which is my elemental sign. I appreciated my natural environment more which made me feel calm and collected. The third was the element of air. The wind played games with me. Some days I would feel its lack of presence while other days its presence was overwhelming, knocking down all of my work on the wall which became very frustrating when I wanted to focus.

In order to express these elements, I referenced the platonic solids: the icosahedron, the cube and the octahedron, which represent the elements water, earth and wind respectively. I wondered if I should have used the element of fire – the tetrahedron – because I was affected a bit by fire later in the week. It is the dry season now and many fires happen. The presence of smoke affects my sinuses a lot and I was having issues all week. The pyromaniacs come out around this year, they use the sun as an excuse to burn the cane trash and bushy areas, but ironically most fires happen at night. Maybe I should have introduced the element of fire in my drawings… I feel perplexed. I always stress over small things.

I tried creating on vellum for the first time and found out it is a very tricky surface to use. Pigment liners, ink and vellum do not have a solid and stable marriage. The vellum does not allow any type of ink to dry onto its surface, so many times my hand would smudge the lines I made. I tried to avoid touching the parts I drew and I went as far as leaving it overnight so it would dry. The next day the marks and lines I made literally melted on the vellum – it was bizarre. I did not like it at first because I like to control the things I create, but afterwards I grew fond of the melted marks and smudges. It worked well with the drawing, giving a nice contrast where the water sign lay. It suited it more than what I had originally done. I did other abstract drawings utilizing the symbols, and I liked them a lot. I grew very fond of this work I made here in the studio. I think I am becoming more comfortable with using colour.

To my surprise, I saw Bambee this week. We stared at each other for a while as she lay in the dirt. I stood beyond the electric line, not getting too close. I had not seen her in a while. I think I saw some sadness in her eyes; maybe she will miss me. Maybe I am just delusional. This is a cow who does not share these thoughts. Oh well…

Overall I think my four weeks at the farm were productive. I enjoyed meeting all the international resident artists and other local visitors. I enjoyed the conversations with the Fresh Milk members and volunteers. My experimentation with colour and collage is a start to a new segment of my artistic journey.

I am happy with my progress. I want to thank Annalee Davis and the entire Fresh Milk team for the opportunity.