Versia Harris’ Residency at the IBB – Final Update

October 30, 2013May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Barbadian artist Versia Harris blogs about her residency at the Instituto Buena Bista (IBB) in Curacao, where she recently completed her stint in their International Project Space programme for the month of October, 2013.

The End…

Friday marked the end of my five week residency at the IBB in Curacao. A truly wonderful experience filled with ups and downs. I am flying away from this island but I will hold it in my little heart pocket with all other things that I am fond of.

The two weeks of workshop with the students were the most challenging part of the residency, but it was also one of the highlights of my stay. It was physically draining and it delayed my other work. It challenged my patience but it also opened my eyes to what teaching entails. It’s more than just passing knowledge and advice, it’s also caring enough to push the students, especially when they don’t want to or feel like they can’t do something. At times I felt like I am still too selfish to pour this amount of time and energy into mentoring someone. And yet watching them produce their own animations and then seeing the finished products made me happy and proud to have been able to teach someone something new.

Work produced by IBB students out of their animation classes with Versia Harris

The last two weeks were the most productive. Before coming to Curacao, I had just finished my second animation and was now searching for a direction or at least a starting point for my next video. When I started to work I was drawn to the same kinds of images that I had created for my previous animations, i.e. the open landscape and the small room, devoid of almost all furniture. So I decided to place a version of myself in the images to see what could be revealed to me. The scenes became not just environments, but more about my attitude towards dealing with fantasy. And in creating these images, I thought about the construction of fantasy and how reality and fantasy constantly inform each other – and so the video became an experiment about the layering of fantasy and reality. Two projectors were placed facing each other with a screen in the middle. A different video played on each one, but because they were projected onto the same surface it was viewed as one video. In preparing for this I was forced to use new computer programs and to learn new ways of producing video.

The exhibition at the end was a culmination of my digital prints and video, and the students animations. They also opened their studios for the viewers to walk through and observe their other works.

I fell in love with the Curacao landscape and no amount of pictures or videos is enough for me to have when I leave. The IBB is a great place with great people managing it and also passing through it. I immensely appreciate the challenges I faced here, and I am inspired by the things I loved.

Thank You IBB!

To view footage of Versia’s final exhibition and presentation at the IBB, click here.

Exhibition by Versia Harris at the IBB

October 22, 2013May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao in collaboration with Fresh Milk and Barbados Community College (BCC), has the pleasure to announce that Barbadian Artist Versia Harris will be exhibiting on October 25th 2013.

Versia Harris together with British/Barbadian artist Nick Whittle is residing at the IBB as part of the IBB’s Junior/Senior exchange program and our efforts for an exchange project and collaboration with the BCC. Nick unfortunately had to take sudden leave for family matters, but he plans to return to finish his residency in the near future.

Versia Harris (1991) 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 program in 2012, with an award from The Leslie’s Legacy Foundation for the most promising student. She recently completed her second local residency at The Fresh Milk Art Platform and her first international residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont. Versia explains that in her work she explores the fantasies and experiences of an original character. The character is introduced to Walt Disney animations, and consequently layers what she desires from these animations onto her life, especially her physical self. Her relationship to the world around her changes, as she compares her reality and the fantasy of Disney Animated stories. She struggles with her perception of self being in complete contrast with the Disney princesses.

Sparked by her interest in storytelling, she created the character and story to generate a comparison between Walt Disney iconography and her reality. Despite the fabricated narrative, she addresses issues that intrigue her such as how one can be influenced by media and the process of comparing oneself to another of unrealistic standards. You can follow the artist on Tumblr or on Twitter @versiaharris

Versia also provided an animation workshop to the students at the IBB. Students were asked to work in groups of two to create their own character and make a short hand-drawn animation. Using Photoshop as a manipulation tool, students made short animations ranging from feel-good themes all the way to more dramatic subjects. The final results will also be presented during the night of Versia’s exhibition.

We invite you to come and meet artist Versia Harris, experience her work and be transported to her amazing world of manipulated pen-drawn animations.

Date: Friday, October 25th 2013
Time: starts at 7p.m. sharp
Place: Instituto Buena Bista

For more information on the exhibition or the IBB please visit our website or call us weekdays at +5999 736 3605 and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

Damali Abrams’ Residency: Week 3 Report – Groundation Grenada

October 21, 2013June 9, 20151 Comment

The first day of the performance workshop with Damali Abrams at Groundation Grenada.

The first day of the performance workshop with Damali Abrams during her week at Groundation Grenada.

I spent last week in Grenada and facilitated a two-day performance art workshop with Groundation Grenada. The workshop was absolutely amazing!

There were twelve very enthusiastic participants. Students, teachers, actors, models, photographers, writers, videographers and more, representing a wide age range.

The first day we were at The National Museum. I created a presentation showing as much of a variety of performance art as I could in an hour. Rather than presenting in chronological order, I went back and forth between contemporary and older examples. Sheena Rose’s recent Sweet Gossip performances in Barbados, Lorraine Ogrady as Mlle Bourgeois Noir, My Barbarian, Anna Mendieta, Michelle Isava in Trinidad, Yoko Ono and so on. I showed photos and videos. The group was very engaged and we had some compelling discussions about the topics raised in each performance as well as the methods utilized by the various performance artists. After the presentations we broke into smaller groups to plan public performance pieces for the next day. We placed topics in a bag and let a representative from each group choose. The topics in the bag were high unemployment rates; stigmatizing mental illness; domestic violence; and Grenada secondary schools expelling girls who become pregnant.

The second day we took it to the streets!

Malaika, Damali and Aisha during their public performance. Photo by Zoë Hagley

Malaika, Damali and Ayisha during their public performance. Photo by Zoë Hagley

We set up in front of the Esplanade Mall on a busy day. Ayisha and Malaika from Groundation Grenada and I decided to choose a topic from the bag and create a performance as well. Our topic was the fact that if a girl becomes pregnant in secondary school in Grenada, she is expelled. The three of us dressed in school uniforms with long navy blue pleated skirts and white shirts with peter pan collars. Ayisha and Malaika stuffed their bellies to look pregnant. I carried a swaddled teddy bear to look like my baby. We walked into the plaza in front of the Esplanade Mall. It was a Friday afternoon and there were a lot of kids and adults around. We set up three metal folding chairs. To our left was a sign that read “Cast the First Stone.” In the center about five feet in front of us was a large stone. (We made sure that it was large enough that if someone did decide to “cast” it at us, it would be too heavy.) We sat there and Malaika and Ayisha rubbed their pregnant bellies. I held and rocked my baby. People began to gather around, very curious about what we were up to. There was a huge circle of people around who only continued to gather as each of our groups performed.

The group that chose domestic violence was up next. The group decided to view the term domestic violence more broadly, beginning in the home with spousal abuse and child abuse, and spreading out to domestic violence as violence against the nation and on planet Earth, our collective home. The group designed elaborate costumes and props out of cardboard and acted out a scene where an oppressor dragged two people behind him, holding onto him by a long heavy metal chain.

The group doing a performance around domestic violence. Photo by Zoë Hagley

The group doing a performance dealing with domestic violence. Photo by Zoë Hagley

The group doing a performance dealing with domestic violence. Photo by Zoë Hagley

The next group’s performance was about stigmatizing mental illness. They had a table in the center with four chairs. The three performers came out in different states of eccentric dress. On their plates instead of food they were “eating” cell phones, condoms and jewelry. The one male performer in the group blew up a condom like a balloon and stuck it into the one shoulder that his t-shirt was covering. Students from the crowd came close to see what was happening. One boy sat at the free chair at the table and began interacting with the group.

The group doing a performance dealing with the stigma around mental illness. Photo by Zoë Hagley

The final group’s performance was about high unemployment rates. They marched out in a circle and then performed various gestures under a long black cloth, symbolizing domestic violence, neglected children and prostitution, some of the affects of high unemployment. At the end the group dropped to the floor and just lay there with their heads covered by the black cloth for about ten minutes, completely still. The crowd was riveted and when the group finally stood up from the ground, the audience cheered.

The group doing a performance dealing with the consequences of unemployment.

The group doing a performance dealing with the consequences of high unemployment rates.

It was an exhilarating experience for all of us. It was intense to create these performances around such weighty topics. It was also a bonding experience. We took a huge risk thrusting ourselves into the public sphere and there was great reward and a feeling of camaraderie. I felt creatively rejuvenated and inspired by the entire experience and seeing what all of the workshop participants came up with. There was a certain level of freedom performing in a place where I don’t know anyone. But I also felt nervous about doing an unsanctioned performance in a public place. I couldn’t imagine how people would react. I also didn’t know if as an outsider I had a right to claim this space and comment on these issues in someone else’s country and community. Those issues remain unresolved for me, but I feel inspired to find ways to continue this kind of work wherever I am.

Infinite thanks to Groundation Grenada for inviting me and allowing me the space to share my passion for performance, as well as making my week in Grenada unforgettable.

– Damali Abrams

FRESH MILK XIII

October 15, 2013July 18, 2019Leave a comment

FRESH MILK is pleased to invite you to our upcoming public event FRESH MILK XIII, which will be held on Thursday, October 24^th 2013 from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at the Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc., St. George, Barbados. See our About page for directions.

The event will feature a screening of the full length documentary Fresh Performance: Contemporary Performance Art in NYC & the Caribbean, created by New York-based, Guyanese performance/video artist Damali Abrams, who is currently on a joint residency with Fresh Milk and Groundation Grenada.

Damali has been working with Fresh Milk since April this year on the Fresh Performance Project, which has seen her interviewing one Caribbean-based and one New York-based performance artist each month and editing the footage into a six-chapter series of short videos. Given that performance art in the Caribbean is practiced by a small number of artists, this project has opened up a critical dialogue contributing to expanding the creative arena, and offering support to performance artists who often work in isolation. The project aims to build cultural bridges between the U.S. and the Caribbean and generate understanding and community through the arts. Damali has been using her time in the Caribbean to produce a full length documentary on this subject, as well as undertaking public outreach components in both Barbados and Grenada. Her progress will be screened at FRESH MILK XIII, and a Q&A session to further the conversation will be facilitated.

Also being shown at the event will be a selection from Project 35 Volume 2, a traveling exhibition produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. The exhibition is made possible, in part, by grants from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and the Robert Lehman Foundation; the ICI Board of Trustees; and donors to ICI’s Access Fund. Among the curators who took part in this project is Trinidadian artist and writer Christopher Cozier.

Fresh Milk will also use this event as a platform to launch two very exciting projects – our new public gallery space the FRESH MILK ARTBOARD and the Fresh Milk Virtual Map of Caribbean Art Spaces. The Artboard, which resides in a field of cows bordering a public road on the way to Fresh Milk, will be used to feature the work of contemporary artists, increasing visibility and awareness of their practice to a wide audience. Kick-starting our new public gallery space will be Barbadian artist Evan Avery, whose work was taken to Brazil as one part of the Visual Arts component of the recently held Barbados trade mission to Sao Paulo. The graphic he designed is currently displayed at the informal art space Casa Tomada in their ‘A Casa Recebe’ programme, a street facing window showcasing work from artists locally and internationally, until March 2014. Having his work running concurrently in both spaces for a period of time deepens the relationship we are building with Casa Tomada and the arts community in Sao Paulo, and we look forward to hosting pieces from Brazilian artists on our Artboard as a part of this cultural exchange.

The Fresh Milk Virtual Map is a freely accessible, interactive online cultural map of the Caribbean, which clearly delineates the existing spaces for the arts in the region, from the nineteenth century up to the present time.

This map addresses the lack of available information about Caribbean arts at the formal, informal and educational levels. The region is mapped to show arts entities, listed with links to the websites of spaces, and maintained to keep information current. This map is not only a pivotal information hub and educational tool, but a place to form new bonds and to make connections among practitioners in the Caribbean and worldwide. We would eventually like to expand the map to include our partner institutions throughout the diaspora as well. We wish to acknowledge the amazing tour de force we have in Kriston Chen who has managed and designed the virtual map project.

Finally, we are also proud to showcase some of the beautiful new publications we have purchased for the Colleen Lewis Reading Room. Our collection has continued to grow through the generosity and support of donors, funders and organizations, and as always we invite people to email us at freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com to schedule appointments to make use of this valuable resource.

Special thanks to the US Embassy in Barbados for supporting Damali’s residency and contributing to the expansion of the Reading Room; to the Maria Holder Memorial Trust for supporting the Virtual Map as well as expanding the library collection; Groundation Grenada for taking part in this collaborative residency with us; the ICI for sharing Project 35; and to Musson Realty for donating their billboard for Fresh Milk to use as an exhibition space. We are extremely grateful for all of the relationships we have formed, which assist us in carrying out our mission.

Damali Abrams’ Residency: Week 2 Report

October 14, 2013June 9, 2015Leave a comment

I presented my work to art majors at BCC (Barbados Community College) on Monday. Seriously one of the toughest crowds ever. They seemed to have a lot to say based on facial expressions and whispering amongst themselves but would not say much to me no matter how I tried to engage them. I learned afterward that this is common among students here. One student also told me privately after class that the fact that I framed my work as feminist made the males afraid to respond based on what other guys might think of them. He also thought that the young women in the class might be afraid to respond, not wanting the guys to think that they were man-haters. When I mentioned feminism, one male student sadly asked “Why feminism? Why not something that includes everyone?” I tried to quickly define feminism and told him that it does include everyone. Then I prescribed some bell hooks.

I went back the next day with just Annalee’s class (a much smaller group than the day before) to watch Herb & Dorothy. It’s a really sweet documentary about this average couple (librarian & postal worker) who live in a cramped one-bedroom apartment and and spend their 40-something year marriage cramming the space with an amazing art collection worth millions. And then they refused offers to sell the work and instead donated the entire collection to the National Gallery.

After the film there was some very lively debate about what art is and what it is isn’t. Some of the students were quite offended that I’d said in my presentation the day prior that I believe that everything is art. They didn’t raise it during my talk but apparently talked a lot about it afterwards. It was great to hear the students’ views and I really enjoyed engaging with them and getting to see one student’s work after class.

At the end of the week I went with the same group to a gallery called ArtSplash where a local artist exhibiting there spoke with the class about his work. It was nice being able to interact with a local artist and hearing about his practice and process.

I feel like my consciousness is expanding in so many ways. I have been consuming so much beauty here on a daily basis. I have been absorbing art and conversations. I have experienced new levels of solitude. It takes me a long time to process things so I have no idea how all of this is going to manifest in my art in the long-run…

I have been filming a lot (as always). The scenery is magical and I want to capture everything. I also make sure to pause at moments to take it all in without the camera. On Saturday Mark King, another local artist, took me to Bathsheba Beach so that I could get some footage. It was overwhelmingly beautiful and I’m really thankful that he was willing to be so generous with his time.

On Thursday Katherine invited me to her zumba class. It was absolutely amazing! Nothing but soca and dancehall music and a fun opportunity to wine up and wuk up! I learned some new moves to bring back to New York.

The project I came here to work on feels stagnant right now. I am trying to breathe new life into it but I’m not sure how. I feel extremely inspired but it’s like I’m in a completely different dimension than when I began working on the Fresh Performance interviews way back in April. On the positive side, editing the work means deep listening to the words of the artists I’ve interviewed and I am gaining a lot of inspiration and insight from them as well.

And as you can see in the photos and video, I’m still enjoying covering things in glitter.

– Damali Abrams