Versia Harris selected for IV Moscow Biennial for Young Art

June 20, 2014May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Visual artist and member of the Fresh Milk Books editorial team, Versia Harris has been invited to show her work in the IV Moscow Biennial for Young Art at The Museum of Moscow in Russia. The Biennial is titled A TIME FOR DREAMS, is curated by David Elliot and runs from 26 June to 10 August 2014

Versia’s Artist Statement

They say you can dream a thing more than once
Just because you wish for something, doesn’t make it true. Or does it?

I am captivated by the process of viewing fiction and projecting the fictional images into actuality so that it almost seems as if it becomes a part of one’s reality. As such, the narrative in my work generates a comparison between the character’s reality and fantasy, namely Walt Disney animations. It follows the experiences of the character as she continuously imitates or layers what she consumes from Walt Disney films unto her physical self and environment.

At the center of my investigation, stands the theme of self-image. The character is a manifestation of a person both beautiful and flawed aspiring to acquire the perceived superior physical and behavioral attributes of another. I consider the influences on behavior, especially influences through the media, which projects the perfect or acceptable image, and examine the challenges faced when what is desired conflicts with what is. I ultimately question whether one can subconsciously mimic fiction, until what one deems as reality is not as easily distinguishable from fantasy as one would think.

This project revisits two animations ‘A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re awake’ and ‘They say you can dream a thing more than once’. I am re- presenting these animations concurrently, as a five video installation, to further engross the viewer with content and scale. The installation re-frames the narrative to draw new parallels and associations between the two animations.

About Versia Harris

Versia is a Barbadian artist living and working in Weston, St. James. She graduated from the Barbados Community College with a BFA in the Studio Art programme in 2012 and was awarded The Leslie’s Legacy Foundation Award, an annual prize given to the top graduate. In her work, Versia tackles perceptions of fantasy in contrast to the reality of her original character. She uses Adobe Photoshop to manipulate her pen drawings to create the animations.

She participated in her first local residency with Projects and Space in 2011. Within the past year she has completed four residencies, beginning with a local residency at Fresh Milk, followed by her first international residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and two regional residencies at the Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao and Alice Yard, Trinidad in late 2013.

FRESH MILK XVI: Book Launch and Conversation for ‘See Me Here’

June 11, 2014May 20, 20151 Comment

The Fresh Milk Art Platform is pleased to invite you to our last public event before our summer break, FRESH MILK XVI – the Barbados book launch for Robert & Christopher Publishers’ (R&C) latest title, See Mere Here: A Survey of Contemporary Self-Portraits from the Caribbean, edited by Melanie Archer and Mariel Brown. The event will feature a small exhibition and panel discussion with the Barbadian artists featured in the publication – Ewan Atkinson, Annalee Davis, Joscelyn Gardner and Sheena Rose – and editor Melanie Archer, moderated by Barbadian artist Russell Watson.

See Me Here will be available for purchase at Fresh Milk on the night of the launch at a discounted price of $100 BBD, and thereafter at $110 BBD. The book has also been added to the collection in the on-site Colleen Lewis Reading Room (CLRR). In the spirit of celebrating this ever expanding archive of beautiful and critical publications, there will also be a short presentation on our new initiative Fresh Milk Books, introducing the team and sharing ways in which the public can get involved with this space for the interactive exploration of the CLRR.

FRESH MILK XVI takes place Thursday, June 26, 2014 from 6:30-8:00 pm at the Fresh Milk Studio, St. George (directions can be found here) and is free and open to the public.

About See Me Here

See Me Here is the second book in R&C’s thematic explorations of contemporary art in the Caribbean – it follows the imprint’s successful first title, Pictures from Paradise (2012), which was picked up for distribution by North America’s most prestigious art book distributor, and is also being made into a major exhibition in Toronto, Canada, in May.

See Me Here calls attention to recent directions in self portraiture throughout the region, by focusing on artists who frequently or significantly use their physical selves, or those to whom they are linked by blood or significant experience, as an avenue for exploration and expression. In so doing, the book asks: How do we really see ourselves? How accurate is the image we present? What formative roles do our cultures and upbringings play? And, what role does the Caribbean as a physical and mental space have in the creation and perception of our own personal, visual identities?

Edited by Melanie Archer and Mariel Brown, See Me Here features a critical essay by Marsha Pearce, and more than 380 images from 25 artists. These works range across a variety of media, from drawing and painting to photography, sculpture, installation and performance. Eleven of these artists – Akuzuru, Ashraph, Susan Dayal, Michelle Isava, Jaime Lee Loy, Che Lovelace, Joshua Lue Chee Kong, Steve Ouditt, Irénée Shaw, Roberta Stoddart and Dave Williams – are from or are based in Trinidad & Tobago. The book’s other artists – Ewan Atkinson, James Cooper, John Cox, Renee Cox, Annalee Davis, Laura Facey, Joscelyn Gardner, Lawrence Graham-Brown, Anna Ruth Henriques, Nadia Huggins, O’Neil Lawrence, Olivia McGilchrist, Sheena Rose, and Stacey Tyrell – are either based in the Caribbean or have ties to the region, which are addressed through their works selected for the book.

About the Presenting Artists

Ewan Atkinson:

Ewan Atkinson was born in Barbados in 1975. He received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and an MA in Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. He has exhibited in regional and international exhibitions including the 2010 Liverpool Biennial, “Wrestling with the image: Caribbean Interventions” at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, and “Infinite Islands” at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

Atkinson is the coordinator of the BFA in studio art at the Barbados Community College where he co-founded the Punch Creative Arena, an initiative for creative action based in the college gallery. An arts educator for over a decade, he is also on the executive board of Fresh Milk, a Caribbean non-profit, artist-led, creative support organization. Atkinson also works as a freelance illustrator and designer.

Founder of Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc.

Annalee Davis:

Annalee Davis is a Visual Artist living and working in Barbados. She has been exhibiting her work regionally and internationally since 1989. She works part-time as a tutor in the BFA programme at the Barbados Community College.

Her explorations of home, longing and belonging question parameters that define who belong (and who doesn’t) in contemporary Caribbean society, exposing tensions within the larger context of a post-colonial history while observing the nature of post-independent (failing?) Caribbean nation-states.

In 2011, Annalee founded and now directs the artist-led initiative The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. An experiment, a cultural lab and an act of resistance, Fresh Milk supports excellence among contemporary creatives in the Caribbean, its diaspora and internationally.

Joscelyn Gardner:

Joscelyn Gardner was born in Barbados and lived there until 2000 when she moved to Canada. She now teaches Fine Art at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and works as an artist between Canada and the Caribbean. She holds an MFA degree from the University of Western Ontario and her work has been exhibited widely in solo exhibitions in the USA, Canada, Spain, and the Caribbean, and in numerous international exhibitions including the Sao Paulo Biennials and major European and Latin American printmaking biennials.

Recent awards include the Biennial Grand Prize at the 7^th International Contemporary Printmaking Biennial in Quebec (2011), awards at the Open Studio National Printmaking Awards (Toronto, 2012) and the 22nd Maximo Ramos International Biennial Award for Graphic Arts (Spain, 2012), and a Canada Council for the Arts grant for a major research project in the UK (2013). Gardner’s work is found in many public and private collections and can be viewed on her website.

Sheena Rose:

Born in 1985, Sheena Rose has a BFA from the Barbados Community College. Rose’s work is comprised of hand drawn animation combined with photographs, mixed media, transfers and comic strips. The animations have a surreal quality and deal with daily life, space and the stereotype of her country.

Rose has exhibited extensively, both regionally and internationally. Her work has been shown at Real Art Ways, Hartford Connecticut, Queens Museum, New York, Uitnodiging Amsterdam, Holland, Havana Biennial, Cuba, ACIA, Madrid, Spain, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C, Greatmore Art Studios, Cape Town, SA, International Curator Forum, Bristol, England, CMAC, Martinique, Museo de Arte, Contemporaneo de Puerto, Puerto Rico, Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, Kentucky, US, Aruba Biennial, Aruba, Panama Biennial del Sur, Panama and Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

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About Robert & Christopher Publishers

Robert & Christopher Publishers (R&C) is a Trinidad-based art book imprint. R&C’s primary concern in its art series is to produce quality books that document and elucidate our Caribbean story, as seen through the eyes of Caribbean artists. R&C aims to produce the highest quality of relevant art books that will be accessible to a wide reading and creative audience in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and internationally.

Robert & Christopher’s mission is to help open up critical dialogue for and amongst Caribbean people, and to explore and record the work of regional artists from a local perspective. By keeping a low price point on all their titles, R&C aims to create go-to texts that are accessible to artists, students of art, art lovers, and critics within the region. And, by maintaining high intellectual and production standards, R&C aims to appeal to international art and publishing markets.

In addition to See Me Here, Robert & Christopher has also published: Pictures from Paradise: A Survey of Contemporary Caribbean Photography, Che Lovelace: Paintings 2004 – 2008, Meiling: Fashion Designer and Barbara Jardine: Goldsmith.

Academic Digest: Intangible Economies – #CCF

May 31, 2014May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Fillip Magazine’s Intangible Economies (2012) tackles the abstract nature of economy in relation to cultural production. Set in the world of cultural/artistic production, the works in this anthology build on the provocative premise of its introduction, providing specialised analyses of the concept of economy as an institutionalised value system. My response offers a brief look at “Intangible Economies”, the introductory chapter of the anthology. It took me three reads to grasp the salient ideas being expressed in the introductory chapter of the journal (the Footnotes were a saviour !). Making reference to Mauss’ theory of ‘the gift’, Derrida’s theory of representation and the ‘symbolic order’ and Marx’s theory of alienation, Hirsch’s articulation of the relationship between affect and economy raises challenging questions about the value of cultural production in a capitalist economic system.

The above excerpt is from Amanda Haynes’ review of Fillip Magazine’s edition Intangible Economies (2012) , this week’s addition to the Fresh Milk Books Tumblr – the online space inviting interaction with our collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

For new Critical. Creative. Fresh reviews every week, look out for our #CCF Tuesdays and see the good reads we have available at Fresh Milk!

Cherise Ward ‘My Time’ Residency – Puppet Building Workshop

May 26, 2014May 20, 2015Leave a comment

For my community outreach for the residency, I decided to do a 3 hour Puppet Building Workshop with students from Workmans Primary. The students were from both Class 3 and Class 4.

As part of my preparation, I made a test puppet. I wanted it to be a simple hand puppet that I thought the students would be able to make themselves. I used fabric, felt and construction paper.

On the day of the workshop, I had the assistance of Fresh Milk volunteers Versia and Ronald, and they were a great help.

I started by teaching the students about 3 different types of puppets, and doing a brief demonstration of how they worked using puppets I have made. They took notes, and were interested in trying to operate the puppets themselves. Then we got started making their hand puppets.

Puppets made by Cherise, demonstrating different techniques.

Annalee Davis introducing Cherise to the Workmans Primary students.

Cherise demonstrating one of her puppets.

Cherise showing one of her completed puppets.

Cherise assisting with the puppet construction.

The students cut out their templates for the glove part of the puppet, and traced them onto the fabric, and we helped them cut and glue the fabric. They drew the designs for their puppets, and then cut the shapes for the heads and hands, and decorated them using felt, paper, and crayons.

The workshop was really well received. The students were enthusiastic, and excited about the puppets, and we had a great time. Thanks to Versia and Ronald for their help as well as Annalee and the teachers at Workmans Primary.

Follow Cherise on Tumblr for updates on her residency & practice.

John Berger Makes Me Dizzy – #CCF

May 22, 2014May 20, 2015Leave a comment

How can I review a John Berger book? How do I gather my thoughts on his thoughts, simplify them and concisely and articulately present them in a 500 word summary? I can’t. Whether through my own honest inability or fear of even trying (I’ll give myself the answer to that later), I found it impossible to do. But under the watchful eyes of two of my teammates here at Fresh Milk (Katherine and Amanda) I feel I must say a little something about the man in the photo above.

John Berger is a writer, a poet, and an intellectual. He is one of the few minds of the 20th century able to dissect a wide range of matters and re-present them with precision and clarity. John Berger Selected Essays is a compilation of some of the most prolific writings of his career. The editor, Geoff Dyer, has gathered works from a number of his collections, including: “The Look of Things” (1972), “About Looking” (1980) and “The White Bird” (1985).

The above excerpt is from Versia Harris’ review on Selected Essays of John Berger, this week’s addition to the Fresh Milk Books Tumblr – the online space inviting interaction with our collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

For new Critical. Creative. Fresh reviews every week, look out for our #CCF Weekly and see the good reads we have available at Fresh Milk!