Category: Contemporary Art

Season’s Greetings from FRESH MILK: 2014 in Review

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The FRESH MILK Team has grown in strength and numbers in 2014 – we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our contributors, volunteers, artists and many fantastic supporters for all you have so generously given this year. We are truly blessed.

We look forward to engaging with you all in the coming year, and will continue to do our best to give back to our community by creating more points of opportunity and encounter for creatives in Barbados, the Caribbean and further afield.

As ever, we give you all our deepest gratitude and warmest wishes for the season, and invite you to take a look at…

2014 in review

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Fresh Stops: Versia Harris Up Next!

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Versia Harris Up Next

Fresh Milk  and Adopt A Stop continue the Fresh Stops collaborative project this month with Versia Harris‘ piece titled ‘At the Side of Something‘. In an attempt to bring art into the public space, six artists were commissioned to produce original artwork for benches that will appear at varied locations around the island.  ‘At the Side of Something‘ by Versia Harris will soon be revealed at a location near you.

The other participating artists include Evan Avery, Matthew Clarke, 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.

‘At the Side of Something’ in process
‘At the Side of Something’ in process
‘At the Side of Something’ in process
‘At the Side of Something’ in process
‘At the Side of Something’ in process
‘At the Side of Something’ in process
‘At the Side of Something’ in process

At the Side of Something.

 ‘At the Side of Something’ attempts to embody a moment of solitude; a figure stands alone and somewhat out of place in a large forested area with only his reflection for company. It aims to capture the feeling of being alone while surrounded by so much.

Versia Harris

Photograph by Omar Kuwas

Photograph by Omar Kuwas

Artist Versia Harris lives and works in the country of her birth, 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.

About Adopt A Stop:

The Adopt A Stop project provides socially beneficial advertising in the form of bus shelters, benches and outdoor fitness stations at prime sites around Barbados. They embrace solar lighting, local materials and tropical design in keeping with their goal of environmental sustainability.

FRESH MILK XVII

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Fresh Milk XVII

Join us on December 19th, 2014, from 6:30 to 8pm for FRESH MILK XVII. Visual artist Kara Springer and poet / critical writer Christian Campbell will speak about their residency experiences; Katherine Kennedy will share news about her recently completed three month Fellowship at Akadamie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany while Natalie McGuire will join us by Skype to speak about TVE – a Transoceanic Visual Exchange between Barbados, Nigeria and New Zealand.

It’s the last Fresh Milk event for 2014. We’ll close out the year with a Pot Luck. Bring food, drink and good cheer!

This event is free and open to the public.

Visit https://freshmilkbarbados.com/about/ for directions to Fresh Milk

Kara Springer

Kara Springer

Kara Springer is an industrial designer and visual artist.  Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, she currently lives and works between Toronto and Detroit.  Her interdisciplinary practice explores the intersections of the body and industrial modes of production through sculpture, photography and designed objects. Kara completed an Hon.B.Sc. in Life Sciences from the University of Toronto concurrent to a B.Des. in Industrial Design from the Ontario College of Art & Design.  She received her M.A. in New Media and Contemporary Technology from ENSCI Les Ateliers in Paris in 2007. Her work has been exhibited at the Frankfurt Museum of Applied Arts in Germany, the Politecnico di Torino in Italy, the Cultural Center of Belem in Portugal, and is currently included in the 2014 Jamaica Biennial.

Christian Campbell

Christian Campbell

Christian Campbell is a Trinidadian-Bahamian poet and cultural critic. His widely acclaimed first book, Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree Press, 2010), won the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and was a finalist for the Forward Prize for the Best First Collection, among many other awards. Running the Dusk was also named one of the best books of 2010 by the Caribbean Review of Books,Horizon Review and Poetry International. In 2015 Running the Dusk will be translated into Spanish and published as Correr el Crepúsculo by Ediciones Santiago in Cuba. His poetry and essays have been published widely in journals and newspapers such as Callaloo, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Small Axe and Wasafiri.  He studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and currently teaches at the University of Toronto.

Katherine Kennedy

Katherine Kennedy

Katherine Kennedy (Born April 4, 1990, Barbados) graduated from Lancaster University, UK with a degree in Creative Arts (2008-2011) after winning a Barbados Government Scholarship for tertiary education. Her combined major of Fine Art and Creative Writing developed her interests in visual and literary pursuits. She has won awards for her artwork and writing in her home Barbados, and exhibited locally and internationally. She currently works as the Assistant to Director with both The Fresh Milk Art Platform, an artist-led initiative and residency programme, and ARC Magazine for contemporary Caribbean art. Her visual practice is heavily tied to a sense of place, and uses interplay between found organic and inorganic objects to assert cultural identity in different environments.

Katherine travelled to the Instituto Buena Bista (IBB), Curaçao in November 2012 to conduct ‘Creatives in Conversation’, a collaboration between the IBB and Fresh Milk. She received a full fellowship from the Reed Foundation for a residency at The Vermont Studio Center in May 2013. In September 2013, she took part in ‘fresh casa’, a short, intensive mentorship programme at Casa Tomada, São Paulo, Brazil.

Natalie McGuire

Photograph by Dondre Trotman

Photograph by Dondre Trotman

Natalie McGuire is a Barbadian Art Writer who has recently completed her MA at The University of Auckland, NZ, with a thesis deconstructing Caribbean diasporic representation in museums. She is on the board of the Fresh Milk Arts Platform in Barbados, the committee of the West Indian Society in Auckland, and has contributed to publications such as ARC Magazine and AICA Southern Caribbean. Recently she has given papers on Caribbean visual language in digital art mediums at the Small Axe Caribbean Digital Conference and Otago University’s Space Race and Bodies conference.

‘Victoria’ at Bathsheba

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Installed at Bathsheba

Photograph by Llanor Alleyne

Fresh Milk  and Adopt A Stop continue the Fresh Stops collaborative project this month with Mark King‘s piece titled ‘Victoria‘. In an attempt to bring art into the public space, six artists were commissioned to produce original artwork for benches that will appear at varied locations around the island. ‘Victoria‘ by Mark King has been installed at Bathsheba St. Joseph. Thank you to Adopt A Stop for partnering with us to produce this beautiful bench!

The other participating artists  include Evan Avery, Matthew Clarke, Versia Harris,  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.

Photograph Llanor Alleyne
Photograph Llanor Alleyne
Photograph Llanor Alleyne
Photograph Llanor Alleyne
Photograph Llanor Alleyne
‘Victoria’ by Mark King installed at Bathsheba. Photograph by Peter Sandiford.
‘Victoria’ in process
‘Victoria’ in process

Artist Statement: Victoria

“Victoria” serves as a temporary spatial reference anchor that alters a cherished space. The bench thus acts as a marker that activates the environment lending a different perspective to the passer by and participant.

Biography

Mark King

Mark King is a multidisciplinary Barbadian artist who explores archetypes and social norms. Interested in notions of topography and megalography, Mark makes coded, often satirical work that highlights social phenomena. The son of a former diplomat, mark has called several places home. Growing up in the Bahamas, Belgium and the United Sates has left Mark with a unique perspective that directly influences his artistic practice.

Mark holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Photography from the Academy of Art University is San Francisco, California. In 2011 the Lucie Foundation handpicked Mark for their apprenticeship programme. During the same year he participated in a screen-printing residency at Alice Yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad. In  2013, he participated in two residencies – Fresh Milk in Saint George, Barbados and Ateliers 89’ in Aruba for the Mondriaan Foundation’s Caribbean Linked II. Last year he released his first monograph, ‘Plastic’ through MOSSLESS publishing at The Newsstand in New York. Plastic has gone on to The 2013 New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, The 8Ball Zine Fair, the 2013 I Never Read Art Book Fair in Basel, Switzerland, and The 2014 LA Art Book Fair in the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. In July – August of 2014, Mark’s work was on display as part of the International Artist Initiated project (IAI) hosted by the David Dale Gallery & Studios as part of The Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, which took place alongside this year’s Commonwealth Games.

About Adopt A Stop:

The Adopt A Stop project provides socially beneficial advertising in the form of bus shelters, benches and outdoor fitness stations at prime sites around Barbados. They embrace solar lighting, local materials and tropical design in keeping with their goal of environmental sustainability.