Torika Bolatagici’s Residency – Week 1 Blog Post

June 14, 2016June 15, 2016Leave a comment

Melbourne-based Pacific artist Torika Bolatagici shares her first blog post about her Fresh Milk residency. Coming to Barbados with three main goals in mind – to understand the local arts ecology, meet contemporary Barbadian artists and make new work – Torika has spent the first week acclimatizing to both the physical and intangible environment of the country, drawing connections between the region and the Pacific islands and delving into the Colleen Lewis Reading Room to continue her research on contemporary Caribbean art. Read more below:

I am still processing my first week in Barbados. The past 7 days have been a chaotic and exciting mix of books, sweat, introductions, discoveries and breastfeeds in air-conditioned hire cars. Like previous resident Halcyon Macleod, the journey from Australia was a long series of delays and missed connections, and we also lost our portacot. But 7-days in and we’re starting to find our flow here. This week I swam in the Caribbean Sea and dipped my toes in the Atlantic Ocean. I have explored the east coast to Bath Beach and the west coast as far as St. Peter, and I learned a new word – plantocracy.

So, I arrived at Fresh Milk with three main goals; to understand the arts ecology here; meet contemporary Barbadian artists and make new work.

Standing with work by Mark King outside Fresh Milk

On my first day in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room, Annalee gave me a tour of the collection. It was so wonderful to finally be able to read publications I have only seen from afar including the early issues of ARC Magazine, Pictures from Paradise and See Me Here. ARC magazine was the main influence when I initiated the publication Mana Motu for the Contemporary Pacific Arts Festival in Australia. I have admired the work of Fresh Milk from a distance for some time and am eager to know more about how the space has developed and to find out more about arts education here.

I have a thing for Reading Rooms and art libraries. In 2011 I spent a couple of weeks at the Stuart Hall library at the Institute of International Visual Arts. As a result of that experience, I created the pop-up Community Reading Room in Melbourne, using my own collection. When I found out (via ARC) about the Colleen Lewis Reading Room Residency, I knew immediately that it was a space I wanted to engage with.

Books from the Colleen Lewis Reading Room collection

I have spent my first week getting acquainted with the collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room, in an effort to understand the development of the local arts ecology. The collection is incredible, and during my 4 week residency, I will just be able to scratch the surface.

Some of the main texts I have been looking at this week are:

Art in Barbados: What Kind of Mirror Image?
Caribbean Distpatches: Beyond the Tourist Dream
Caribbean: Crossroads of the World
Curating in the Caribbean
Developing Blackness: Studio Photographs of “Over the Hill”: Nassau in the Independence Era
How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness
Paulo Nazareth
Pictures from Paradise
See Me Here

I came to Barbados with a desire to identify points of connection, overlap and departure between the island cultures of Barbados and Fiji. There was an instant feeling of familiarity stepping into the thick humidity of Grantley Adams International airport last Saturday, and although I travel frequently to Fiji, I think it has taken me a week to acclimatize to Barbadian heat. Annalee and Katherine, have made me (and my family) feel so welcome at Fresh Milk and I look forward to chatting with them about their respective practices. Another highlight has been meeting local artist Anisah Wood, whose work I find compelling.

Anisah and I spent Day 2 getting to know each other and our conversation covered matters of indigeneity and belonging; deculturation, transculturation and assimilation; migration; climate change; national identity; local politics; Indonesia and West Papua ; The Dominican Republic and Haiti; foreign investment and student loans. I’m learning so much from Anisah, including how to play the game warri as a part of her Quid Pro Quo residency outreach and I’m looking forward to seeing how the next 3 sessions unfold. I’ll be leading a session in the final week of my residency.

And so I am discovering that there are some obvious similarities between Fiji and Barbados. Colonial history. Indentured labour. A sugar industry. Tourism. Rum. Protex. Mahogany. Coconut water. Expats. Poverty. At the moment I am reading more about the military history of Barbados. One thing that frames my experience of Fiji, is the overt presence of militarism. My practice-based PhD explored the spaces in which the dialectics of race, embodiment, masculinity, globalisation, militarism, colonialism and agency meet, diverge and collide in a Fijian context. So I am intrigued by the size and invisibility of the Barbados Defence Force… this is an area I want to explore further in the coming weeks…

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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Anisah Wood’s Residency – Week 1 Blog Post

June 13, 2016June 12, 2016Leave a comment

Recipient of the ‘My Time’ Local Residency 2016, Anisah Wood, shares her first blog post about her time on the Fresh Milk platform. Using this residency as an introduction to the wider art world after completing her BFA at Barbados Community College earlier this year, Anisah has gotten off to a positive start, using the Colleen Lewis Reading Room for research, connecting with fellow resident, Pacific artist Torika Bolatagici, and leading the first session of her Quid Pro Quo skills exchange programme. Read more below:

Showers of blessing.

The studio & Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

As a recent graduate, entering the art arena can seem quite daunting. While some prefer to plunge right in, my preference was to wet my feet first and make gradual strides into deep end of this art world. And they literally got wet on the first day of my My Time Local Residency at Fresh Milk by the torrential rain that drenched the island. Showers of blessing they call it, ringing in the island’s rainy season and my first residency.

During the days that followed I enjoyed making use of the Colleen Lewis Reading Room in my search for inspiration. Another joy was meeting Torika Bolatagici and her wonderful family. As she relayed to me the ins and outs of her home country and the Pacific Islands I was intrigued by the striking similarities between that region and the Caribbean. Another highlight of the week was the first session of the Quid Pro Quo skills exchange. For that session, I shared my knowledge of the game warri and photography. I must admit that I was a bit anxious about taking on the role of host for this session, and about providing a fair exchange of information. However, based on the feedback, the session went well *phew* and I was glad to make two new acquaintances from very diverse backgrounds. I eagerly look forward to informative exchanges over the upcoming weeks.

Quid Pro Quo skills exchange

Learning about warri at the Quid Pro Quo skills exchange

Photo by Anisah Wood.

Now that I have settled in I am hoping for an increase in momentum and intensify my work production. I am intrigued to see how a change in location will inform my work. These next few weeks will be exciting as I make my way to the deep end of the art arena.

Fresh Milk welcomes Torika Bolatagici

June 2, 2016June 6, 2016Leave a comment

Fresh Milk is very excited to welcome Australia-based, Pacific artist Torika Bolatagici to the platform. She will be in residence with us from June 6 – July 1, 2016.

Protect Me, Digital print on flex, 2010

Torika’s interdisciplinary practice investigates the relationships between visual culture, human ecologies and contemporary Pacific identities. During her time in Barbados, Torika will be undertaking a research-based residency, largely involving engagement with local artists and conducting research in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room (CLRR). She is particularly interested in identifying opportunities to connect Caribbean and Pacific artists whose work might intersect along lines of reflection on culture, identity, place and space within a postcolonial framework.

Torika Bolatagici, Decolonise Your Mind, Digital print on flex, Installation view, 2009.

Black Gold (Piper Methysticum), Digital print on flex, 2009

Export Quality, Illuminated chromogenic print on Duratran. Installation view Queensland Art Gallery, 2012

Vicovico (Umbilicus), Digital print on rag, 2014

Ubi (Cover), Digital print on rag, 2014

In 2013, Torika established an initiative called the Community Reading Room; a pop-up destination for research, community discussion and engagement around international visual arts and culture, with a particular focus on contemporary art and theory from Oceania, Africa and the Americas. Many of the texts deal with postcolonial art, literature and philosophy, visual culture, migration, citizenship and cultural identity. As well as spending time researching the collection in the CLRR, she will be investigating points of synergy and opportunities for collaboration and exchange between the two spaces.

Torika will give a public presentation at Fresh Milk about the work of Contemporary Pacific artists from Australia and New Zealand, as well as her own practice. Stay tuned for more details about the date & time for this event!

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About Torika Bolatagici:

Torika Bolatagici was born in Tasmania and spent the early years of her life living between Hobart, Sydney and her father’s village – Suvavou, Fiji.

Torika works across a range of media, including photography, video and mixed media site-specific installation. Her interdisciplinary practice investigates the relationship between visual culture, human ecology, postcolonial counter narrative and visual historiography of the Black Pacific. She is interested in exploring the tensions and intersections between gender, embodied knowledge, commodification, migration and globalization.

Torika’s work has been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Mexico City, Yogyakarta and throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand and Australia. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at local and international conferences and symposia about the representation of mixed-race identity; Pacific arts practice in Australia and Fiji; representations of teachers and teaching in cinema; and gender and militarism in the Pacific.

In her role as Symposium coordinator for the Contemporary Pacific Arts Festival in 2013 and 2014, Torika curated multiple panels to extend the discourse around contemporary Pacific arts practice in Australia and invited speakers to reflect on themes such as art and activism, museums, collecting and curating, cultural appropriation and contemporary practice. She also produced the symposium publication Mana Motu.

As well as 11 years experience teaching at tertiary level, Torika also has experience facilitating youth arts workshops for the local Pacific community, most recently the Pacific Photobook Project in Melbourne and Sydney.

Torika also presents the Community Reading Room – a pop-up destination for research, community discussion and engagement around international visual arts and culture, with a particular focus on contemporary art and theory from Oceania, Africa and the Americas. The Community Reading Room has appeared at Colour Box Studio (2013) and the Footscray Community Arts Centre (2014).

Torika is a photography lecturer in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University, Melbourne where she teaches contemporary theory and practice. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the School of Art and Design, University of New South Wales.

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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Quid Pro Quo: Skills Exchange Programme at Fresh Milk

June 1, 2016June 1, 2016Leave a comment

The winner of this year’s Fresh Milk ‘My Time’ Local Residency, Anisah Wood, will be in residence with us between June 6 and July 1, 2016. As part of her community outreach during her residency, Anisah will be offering the programme Quid Pro Quo – a series of skill-exchanges at the Fresh Milk studio.

Modeled after the Trade School concept, founded in part by New York based artist Caroline Woolard whose practice “explores intersections between art and the solidarity economy,” these sessions will become a non-traditional space of learning and sharing, emphasizing the value of people’s passions and skills.

Quid Pro Quo will be held at Fresh Milk over a period of four weeks, with the first session being held on Friday, June 10, 2016 at 3:00pm.

The programme will be structured as follows:

Each participant must be willing to share either one’s passion, skills or knowledge in exchange for the skills or knowledge of the other participants.

Each participant can offer an option of 2 to 3 topics or skills. For example, Anisah will offer: ‘Digital photography 101’, ‘The art of collage’ and ‘How to play warri and potta (traditional board games)’. Note that what is offered does not have to be art oriented. The idea is simply to share knowledge with the expectation of receiving knowledge in exchange.

The result is at most a 4 for 1 exchange.

The setting in which the information is dispensed will be informal and the manner in which each participant relays the information is completely up to the individual. It can be a discussion, hands on experience, a series of exercises, a presentation etc.

Each participant will select from the options offered what they would like to know from the other participants. The option that receives the most votes will be the one discussed.

Finally, each participant will be assigned a day in which they will give their presentation, with the option of Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Fridays with flexible hours between 3:00-6:00 pm.

There will be a limited number of participants approximately 4-5 in order to allow the exchange to be completed within the duration of the residency.

How to register:

To register, email freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Quid Pro Quo’ and provide your name, contact information and the knowledge to be bartered in exchange for one of the skill-sets Anisah will be offering by June 7, 2016.

From the response, the participants will be selected and informed of their acceptance by June 9, 2016, in time for the initial session on June 10 at 3:00 pm.

During this meeting, each of the participants will be assigned a week from which they will determine what day and time they will be hosting their session. The participants will then vote on the focus of each session based on the options provided.

Announcing Caribbean Linked IV

May 30, 2016June 9, 2016Leave a comment

We are pleased to announce that the regional residency Caribbean Linked IV will be taking place at Ateliers ’89 in Oranjestad, Aruba from August 1 through 23, 2016. Thanks to generous support from the Mondriaan Fund, Stichting DOEN and the Prince Claus Fund, eleven creatives from around the French, Spanish, English and Dutch Caribbean will convene to produce work and mount an exhibition during this three week period.

This annual residency will again allow the participants to be exposed to the practices of other emerging Caribbean artists, providing an opportunity to strengthen regional connections and cultural understanding.

Artists this year include Frances Gallardo (Puerto Rico), Travis Geertruida (Curacao), Charlie Godet Thomas (Bermuda), Nowé Harris-Smith (The Bahamas), Dominique Hunter (Guyana), Tessa Mars (Haïti), Oneika Russell (Jamaica), Simon Tatum (The Cayman Islands), Laura de Vogel (Aruba) and visiting master artist Humberto Diaz (Cuba).

The writer in residence will be David Knight Jr. (US Virgin Islands), co-founder of Moko Magazine. Visiting artists who will be lending support to Ateliers ’89 during the residency will be Robin de Vogel (Aruba) and Katherine Kennedy (Barbados). This year’s specially invited curators will be María Elena Ortiz, associate curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and Pablo León de la Barra, curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for the Latin American phase of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative.