Barbadian artist Versia Harris will be going to Sao Paulo, Brasil for a two-month residency with Casa Tomada beginning June 1, 2015.
To raise funds to help cover the living costs of this collaborative programme organized between Fresh Milk and Casa Tomada, Versia will be selling reproductions of stills from her original animations leading up to the residency.
To view available pieces for sale, click here.
Please email Versia at versia.abeda@gmail.com for payment methods and shipping fees.
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.
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.
Barbadian-Canadian painter Jordan Clarke shares her second blog post about her Fresh Milk residency. She addresses the direction her work is taking, focusing on self-portraiture and developing the background of her pieces to suggest a sense of space, and has continued to explore the island alongside fellow resident artists Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe of Cooking Sections. Read more below:
Two weeks into the residency and it feels like I just arrived.
I’ve been spending the majority of my time in the studio creating, reflecting and taking everything in. I’m sensing this as a time for gathering images, ideas and information that will find expression in my future creations.
It seems that I have gravitated towards self-portraiture as a way to access how I am feeling and thinking about myself in relation to this new place, Barbados. In addition to working from images, I have taken on the challenge of drawing myself from life each day. To assist me, Annalee set up a large mirror in the studio space. What I’ve found interesting is that none of the portraits drawn from life look completely like me.
Over the past week, I have been thinking about identity and how it is shaped. I realize now that my sense of identity is not linked directly to Barbados, despite my father’s Bajan roots. This is the perfect opportunity for me to think about how I would like to identify, how I see myself, as well as how my life experiences have shaped me.
Mid week I met Barbadian artist Simone Padmore who addresses themes of identity in her work. Some of her illustrations can be found in ARC magazine issue #5.
Towards the end of the week I began to think about the landscape, and how I could paint myself into one. The figure and landscape have always been separate for me. In my work the background suggests a sense of space rather than a specific place or location. I’m not sure where this will go, but it is something I am working on.
It was Easter weekend, and on Good Friday Annalee made a delicious gluten free quiche for our lunch. I am definitely being spoiled here!
An exciting event for me was finding out that early Saturday morning a horse was born on the family farm.
I ended the week traveling part of the West Coast with Alon and Daniel of Cooking Sections, who are also doing a residency here at Fresh Milk. We started at a lively market in Bridgetown. It was a completely different experience from the quiet and serene studio in St. George. I enjoyed the liveliness and dancehall music on the mini buses. We also took some time to enjoy ourselves on the beach. The West Coast is ideal for swimming, in contrast to the rugged picturesque East Coast. Our day ended with food and music at the Oistins Fish Fry on the South Coast.
Looking forward to the week ahead.
_______________________________________
This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council.
Barbadian-Canadian painter Jordan Clarke shares her first blog post about her Fresh Milk residency. In addition to familiarizing herself with Barbados, which she has never visited before, Jordan shares some of her thoughts on grappling with notions of identity and belonging in an environment that is both a part of her heritage yet still a foreign space. Read more below:
I cannot believe it’s been almost a week since I arrived in Barbados.
Shortly after landing on Monday we headed over to Fresh Milk where Annalee gave a lecture to a couple art students from the University of the West Indies. The lecture was a great introduction to the Caribbean and its art scene. We were introduced to the various informal art networks happening throughout the Caribbean such as Alice Yard (Trinidad), Popopstudios (Bahamas), Tembe Art Studios (Suriname), NLS (Jamaica), Beta Local (Puerto Rico), Instituto Buena Bista (Curacao), and Ateliers ’89 (Aruba).
Annalee referenced the book, An Eye For The Tropics by Krista Thompson, to discuss how tropicalization has developed throughout the Caribbean, and how the image alone has been used as a tool in creating this inaccurate idea of a ‘tropical paradise’. It seems that these networks are creating platforms for contemporary artists to be able to experiment and to exchange ideas, while providing safe spaces to foster self-expression.
Both Annalee and Katherine have pointed out various books from the Colleen Lewis Reading Room they thought would be of interest to my art practice.
See Me Here: A Survey of Contemporary Self Portraiture From The Caribbean really stood out for me because I am also dealing with self-portraiture in my work. It’s interesting to see how Caribbean artists are examining, exploring and expressing their identity.
Thinking The Diaspora: Home Thoughts From Abroad by Stuart Hall, was suggested to me after an insightful conversation I had with Annalee about feeling disconnected from Barbados. Because I am mixed race and have a Barbadian father I thought I would feel more at home. But the truth is, I don’t. So once again I’m continuing to question my identity. I am coming to the realization that this is okay!
I was fortunate enough to visit Bathsheba with Aaron Kamugisha who is a professor of Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies. We drove along the rugged East Coast with a stop at St. John’s Parish Church, one of the oldest in Barbados. Looking out from the church was a breathtaking view of the Atlantic Ocean. I also made a visit to Rockley Beach in Christ Church with Annalee. It was an absolutely beautiful evening walking while listing to the rolling waves, after which we headed over to Mojos for dinner, drinks and to meet with local artists Katherine Kennedy, Versia Harris, and Mark King, who I got to meet for the first time.
In addition to sightseeing I’ve been spending a lot of time in the studio. I’m really enjoying just being in this wonderful space that is full of natural light and which also provides a fresh cooling breeze. I began my week with sketching various plants growing around the Fresh Milk space. On Friday I began to work with oil paints on mylar paper. I’m finding the drying time to be a bit slower than what I would like at this point. So in the coming days I will be exploring other mediums such as graphite, charcoal and oil pastels.
_______________________________________
This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council.
fresh milk barbados 