Transoceanic Visual Exchange 2019 Screenings

October 28, 2019October 28, 2019Leave a comment

Fresh Milk (Barbados), in partnership with China Residencies (NYC/China), The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS), Alice Yard (Trinidad & Tobago) and CACHE Space (Beijing, China), is pleased to present the schedule for the 2019 edition of Transoceanic Visual Exchange (TVE), a series of programmes taking place this year between Barbados, China and Trinidad & Tobago.

TVE is a collection of recent films and videos from artists practicing in the Caribbean, China and their diasporas. TVE aims to negotiate the in-between space of our cultural communities outside of traditional geo-political zones of encounter and trade, intending to build relations and open up greater pathways of visibility, discourse and knowledge production between the regional art spaces and their communities.

The Caribbean screenings will take place in Trinidad & Tobago on Tuesday, November 12th at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain, and in Barbados on Friday, November 15th at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Dalkeith Road, Bridgetown and Sunday, November 17th at the Fresh Milk studio, Walkers Dairy, St. George. The screenings in China will take place Wednesday, November 6th at CACHE, No.11 Liao Ge Zi, Qixing East Street, 798 Art District, Chaoyang, Beijing.

Additionally, the online exhibition of works will be available for viewing from November 23rd – December 21st.

All events are free and open to the public. Visit transoceanicvisualexchange.com for more information.

TRINIDAD SCREENING SCHEDULE & PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

ALICE YARD
Tuesday, November 12th, 2019 (6:30 PM)

Minia Biabiany (Guadeloupe) – Blue spelling, a change of perspective is a change of temporality
Wang Chen (China/Australia) – My Little Brother and Secret
Versia Harris (Barbados) – For Peace
Alvin Luong (Canada) – Turbo
Adam Patterson (Barbados) – Rammelaar
Kia Redman (Barbados) – Surround Sounds

BARBADOS SCREENING SCHEDULES & PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

THE BARBADOS MUSEUM & HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Friday, November 15th (5:00 – 9:00 PM)

PRISON CELL:
Richard Mark Rawlins (Trinidad & Tobago) – SUGAR

WALLED GARDEN THEATRE:
Daphne Xu (China/Canada) – The China Society
Wang Chen (China/Australia) – My Little Brother
Adam Patterson (Barbados) – Buchibushi
Hanwen Zhang (USA/China) – The First Line of China

FRESH MILK
Sunday November 17th (6:00 – 9:00 PM)

Minia Biabiany (Guadeloupe) – Blue spelling, a change of perspective is a change of temporality
Chen Dandizi (China) – Deep Relax
Luk Gama (Guadeloupe) – Tan boudé chiré…
Versia Harris (Barbados) – For Peace
Zhiliang Jin (UK/China) – Shareable Horizons
Kadiejra O’Neal (Barbados) – Gestation Period
Adam Patterson (Barbados) – Rammelaar
Kia Redman (Barbados) – Roots | Routes and Surround Sounds
Sucheng (China) – 一千零一夜 (At This Moment)
Zhao Xu (China) – Stranded Dreams
Peng Zuqiang (China) – I Don’t Remember the Name

CHINA SCREENING SCHEDULE & PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

CACHE SPACE
Wednesday November 6th (3:00 PM)

Minia Biabiany (Guadeloupe) – Blue spelling, a change of perspective is a change of temporality
Chen Dandizi (China) – Deep Relax
Versia Harris (Barbados) – For Peace
Nikki Lam (HK/Australia) – Anchor and A Loose Thread
Alvin Luong (Canada) – Turbo
Kadiejra O’Neal (Barbados) – Gestation Period
Adam Patterson (Barbados) – Buchibushi
Richard Mark Rawlins (Trinidad & Tobago) – SUGAR
Kia Redman (Barbados) – Surround Sounds
Daphne Xu (China/Canada)– The China Society
Zhao Xu (China) – Stranded Dreams
Hanwen Zhang (China/US) – The First Line of China
Peng Zuqiang (China) – I Don’t Remember the Name

ABOUT THE PARTNERS:

Fresh Milk

Fresh Milk is an artist-led, non-profit organisation founded in 2011 and based in Barbados. It is a platform which supports excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programmes that provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for development, fostering a thriving art community.

Fresh Milk offers professional support to artists from the Caribbean and further afield and seeks to stimulate critical thinking in contemporary visual art. Its goal is to nurture artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for growth, excellence and success.

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China Residencies:

China Residencies is an online and New-York based nonprofit founded in 2013 by Crystal Ruth Bell & Kira Simon-Kennedy. Since then, China Residencies supported over 50 artists and collective projects in mainland China and Hong Kong. China Residencies supports a network of over 40 different residency programs through openly accessible website, and supports the next generation of artists, activists, and arts administrators through fellowships, exchanges, and fiscal sponsorship.

“We believe diplomacy shouldn’t just be left up to politicians. Artists are cultural and social changemakers, and, in a world where people sometimes forget to listen to and learn from one another, we are passionate about creating opportunities for artists to bring a broader cultural understanding into their work and communities.”

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The Barbados Museum & Historical Society

The Barbados Museum & Historical Society (BMHS) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with a membership of over 1,000 individuals and companies. A fourteen-member Council and the Director are responsible for its policies and operation. Nine council members are elected annually from the membership of the BMHS; the remaining five are appointed by Government.

The mandate of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society is: To collect, document and conserve evidence of Barbados cultural, historical and environmental heritage; and to interpret and present this evidence for all sectors of society.

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CACHE Space:

CACHE Space (缓存空间) is a non-profit art space in Beijing that is dedicated to radical art in China and around the world through screenings, discussions, and online formats.

Wechat: CACHE缓存

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Alice Yard:

Alice Yard is the backyard space of the house at 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain. This was once the house of Sean Leonard’s great-grandmother. Four generations of children played and imagined in this yard, and now we continue this tradition. Alice Yard is a space for creative experiment, collaboration, and improvisation.

Alice Yard is administered and curated by architect Sean Leonard, artist Christopher Cozier, and writer and editor Nicholas Laughlin, with the help of a growing network of creative collaborators. Alice Yard is a non-profit organisation incorporated under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.

Since 2008, Alice Yard has run a residency programme hosting artists, curators, and other creative practitioners.

Fresh Milk’s 2018 Year in Review

January 19, 2019Leave a comment

Thank you for your continued support of Fresh Milk.

We recognise that the creative landscape across Barbados and the Caribbean has transformed in recent years, bringing with it new opportunities, challenges and developments.

We have decided to take 2019 to review our programming to consider how best we can serve the local, regional and international contemporary arts community in the future. We wish to remain as relevant and as constructive as we have been over the past seven years.

Fresh Milk remains open to potential partnerships while maintaining its commitment to Caribbean Linked, Tilting Axis and Transoceanic Visual Exchange. We are considering a reduced number of residencies per year, with a dedicated concentration on the Colleen Lewis Reading Room as a critical resource for the residency programme.

For now, we invite you to reflect on 2018 with us in
our annual year in review newsletter

Tilting Axis 4 – Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures

June 19, 2018June 19, 2018Leave a comment

Tilting Axis 4 – Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures was hosted from May 31st – June 2nd, 2018, by Centro León and Centro Cultural de España in Santo Domingo, in collaboration with Curando Caribe, Santiago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The fourth convening of Tilting Axis aimed to shift its location and context to the Hispanophone Caribbean with the theme ‘Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures’. Artists, curators, stakeholders, instigators and activists gathered to debate ideas about the Caribbean’s interdependent future in relation to culture, the nature, technology and the role of institutions while sharing creative ways which reimagine our collective futures in relationship with our particular environment and with each other.

View the full programme for Tilting Axis 4 here

See below for video documentation of the conference, courtesy of the
Centro Cultural Eduardo León Jimenes Youtube Channel:

Ronald Williams’ Fresh Milk Residency – Week 4 Blog Post

June 4, 2018Leave a comment

Barbadian artist Ronald Williams, the recipient of the 2018 Fresh Milk ‘My Time’ Local Artist Residency, shares his final blog post. Ronald describes the last stretch of his residency as “bittersweet” for a number of reasons. Taking part in the second session of fellow resident artist Daisy Diamond‘s reading group yielded fruitful discussions, but was coupled with having to bid her farewell shortly after. Ronald also felt a renewed sense of clarity and conviction about the work he has been creating, but this was catalyzed by an unfortunate event that is telling of serious societal issues in Barbados. Read more below:

Paulo Freire's 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed'

Last blog post I stopped at the end of Tuesday afternoon’s meeting with the class 4 students at Workman’s Primary. That same evening turned out to be an equally enjoyable exercise of a different sort. I had the pleasure of being a part of a sacred reading session, spearheaded by Daisy, where we engaged in a critical dissection of a few paragraphs of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I thought the discussions that arose from the text, as well as the tangential ones, were all pretty dope. Reading and learning like this is something I’d recommend to any person(s) seeking an in depth appreciation for what they are studying.

Unfortunately, the rest of the week took a bittersweet turn with an emphasis on the bitter portion of that concoction. Tuesday evening was to be the last day I saw Daisy, as her time in Barbados came to an end shortly after. A shame, as I felt I had gotten to know more about her in the last few times we were in the space together. I wish her the best.

Then on a heavier note, serious, senseless but thankfully not tragic events unrelated to Fresh Milk occurred on what was to be my last day of the residency. While not affecting the space, these events did have a negative effect on my state of mind and mentality. It also got me thinking about the multiple times I’ve been asked why my work deals with certain subject matter by strangers and even family members. If I needed something to galvanize the conviction I have for what I’m trying to do with my work, it was what happened that morning.

I did manage to finish the piece I’d been working on the week before. That’s the silver lining from the latter half of week 4. I called it Noose-sense. An obvious play on the word nuisance, but I don’t think the reading of the piece will be as obvious. I like that.

All in all, what can I say at the end of these 4 weeks? It was quick, much quicker than I thought it’d be. I didn’t get as much done from the production side as I intended, but it doesn’t feel like a waste. If anything there’s a significant clarity in exactly what I want to do; now it’s just a matter of execution.

Daisy Diamond’s Fresh Milk Residency – Week 3 Blog Post

May 30, 2018Leave a comment

Fresh Milk shares the third blog post by US-based international resident artist Daisy Diamond. Daisy recounts her return to the Nidhe Israel Synagogue in Bridgetown, where she contemplated the Jewish mikveh ritual and related it to her wider experiences in Barbados. The first session of her sacred reading practices group also took place this week, and the collaboratively chosen text for thoughtful reflection was Paulo Freire’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. Read more below:

I returned to the Nidhe Israel Synagogue early this week to visit one of the oldest mikvahs in the Americas. Mikvahs are traditionally used for ritual purification practices in Judaism and ones like this with fresh running water are said to contain “living water.” According to the Old Testament, the spiritual (rather than physical) cleansing power of this natural water source moved through this bath. If the water became blocked within the vessel, it became “drawn water” and was invalid for mikveh rituals. This reminded me a bit of other rituals of immersion, whether in literal, social, or mental spaces and how stagnancy or movement affect those processes.

There are also connections between these ritualistic, religious submersions and the intentions of those doing them. Some people say pre-written prayers of intention or individual prayers from their heart, like what they hope to experience from their immersion. In some ways, I felt a parallel again between this and the experience of feeling submerged in unfamiliarity with specific intentions to learn and create.

Later in the week, I held a sacred reading practices group at Fresh Milk. I tried to create a space with intention for the folks who showed up to have an engaging conversation. After discussing several religious reading practices, we collectively chose to read Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, a book about education, humanization, relationships within society, and so much more. We took turns reading out loud and tried out some of the sacred reading techniques. These naturally led to conversations about how to define oppression, understand/address disparity, and take responsibility for action.

By framing this conversation in a certain way, we meaningfully engaged with a text and had a very challenging, thought provoking discussion that will be continued at a second reading group during my last week. I have been thinking about how these conceptual frameworks translate to visual symbols or could be explored further in images. I have also been looking at encyclopedias of sacred symbols and myths in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room and taking notes. Visuals are slowly coming together and writing/reading has been a huge part of that process…