Tag: Barbados

Marla Botterill & Conan Masterson’s Residency: Week 1 Report

Leave a comment

IMG_6138

Fresh things are starting to happen already.  We arrived on May 1, a little groggy after travelling all night without sleep.  But the warm welcome we received from Blue Curry who met us at the airport and Fresh Milk’s dynamic duo of Annalee & Katherine certainly gave us energy.  The people are not the only warm thing about this place, the heat envelops you and we welcome that after the frigid winter and chilly spring we left behind in Canada.

The first few days were spent in a whirlwind of meeting some members of the art community here in Barbados, including past resident Mark King, Ewan Atkinson & Allison Thompson (who proved an excellent and knowledgeable tour-guide).  We enjoyed the generous hospitality and tours of impressive art collections of Leandro Soto, Mervyn Awon & the historical Colleton House as well as studio visits to Winston Kellman & Ras Ishi.  It’s been a bi-coastal extravaganza!  We find the lively scene here in Barbados invigorating and encouraging.  We are delighted to be included among the artists in ‘A Performative Moment’ happening next week with the Northern Kentucky University visitors to Fresh Milk and we enjoyed meeting the local artists who will be presenting their work at a group meeting.  We also got to attend BCC’s graduation exhibition of both the Fine Art and Foundation students.  On Monday, playwright Matthew Kupakwashe Murrell began his residency at Fresh Milk and we look forward to a continued and on-going dialogue with him.

Since our arrival we’ve been on sensory-overload.  The sound-scape here in Barbados is very unlike anything we have at home and it took some time to adjust to the singing frogs, alarm-sounding crickets, mahogany tree bombs and new bird calls as well as the farm sounds of the cows and roosters!  Even when inside, the surrounding landscape is ever-present, there is very little separation between outdoor and indoor space, the windows all open wide allowing nature to be seen, heard, smelled and sometimes even entering your space. The grounds surrounding Fresh Milk are a sensory feast.  We are drawn to the repetition of long narrow tendrils and laying in the landscape.  Our work began in earnest last week.  We are using Fresh Milk as a platform to experiment with new ways of working.  Though we have known each other for many years, this is our first journey into working collaboratively.  It is not without challenges.  As individual artists we are used to processing and working though our ideas independently and privately, we are still adjusting to this new way of working.  The first couple of days we set up at opposite ends of the studio, but have gradually begun shifting our things together and working jointly on some initial puppet pieces.  There are obvious references forming in the work to the vegetation, insect, bird and animal life that surrounds us.

Annalee’s dogs have appointed themselves our chaperones, though we think they are just using us for the chickens they hunt after assuring we are safely home.  We spend most evenings at Prendoma, reading through items borrowed from the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.  Our walks home are filled with the seductive smell of ylang-ylang blossoms.

Videobrasil Meeting | Caribbean: Archipelagos for Thought

1 Comment

brazilpanel

Caribbean: Archipelagos for Thought, May 14 2013, at 8:00 pm São Paulo time

To the Martiniquais writer Édouard Glissant, the geography of Antillean archipelagos represents a template for thinking a “creole world” whose dealings with the others are no longer outlined by instances of multiculturalism and compartmentalized identities, but rather by coexistence and dissolution processes. Glissant builds on the Antilles’ insular multitude to propose a model of “archipelago-thinking” as opposed to “continental thinking,” whose nature is hegemonic or homogeneity-inducing.

Annalee Davis, director of Barbados’ Fresh Milk independent center for art practices; Andrés Hernandez, a Cuban-born, Brazilian-based curator; and Mirtes Oliveira, a member of the G27 study group will convene at São Paulo’s Ateliê 397 to relate the notion of “archipelago thinking,” coined by Glissant, with their own contemporary art practices.

This initiative will usher in a new phase in Videobrasil’s audience interface, featuring horizontal, collaborative, investigative, and debate-oriented platforms.

Featuring: Andrés Hernandez, Mirtes Oliveira, Annalee Davis. Mediated by Sabrina Moura. English and Portuguese will be spoken. No simultaneous translation available. On the occasion, issues of ARC Magazine dedicated to Caribbean art, will be available to public consulting.

 About the guests

Andrés I. M. Hernández is a curator and independent producer who holds a master’s in Visual Arts. He was coordinator of the exhibition department at Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center (which hosts the Havana Biennial); the executive coordinator of the curating department at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art; and recently the production and institutional relations coordinator at Luciana Brito Galeria.

Annalee Davis is a Barbadian visual artist whose work addresses the Caribbean’s postcolonial heritage. She was the founder of Fresh Milk, an independent Barbados-based association that supports research exchange initiatives and fosters productions by contemporary creators. She is a part-time professor at the Barbados Community College’s baccalaureate program. As an artist, she has featured in the São Paulo and Havana biennials (both in 1994), among other shows.

Mirtes Marins de Oliveira was the coordinator of the Baccalaureate in Fine Arts (1997-2006) at Faculdade Santa Marcelina (Fasm), and the implementer and coordinator, from 2003 to 2013, of the master’s program in visual arts at the same institution. Presently, she is a professor at the masters and doctoral courses in Design at Universidade Anhembi-Morumbi. The G27 group, of which she is a member alongside Ana Maria Maia (Tomie Ohtake Institute), Regina Parra (FAAP) and Tainá Azeredo (Casa Tomada), studies the manifold aspects of curating processes and practices, by means of historical research on art and design shows held since the emergence of 20th century vanguards.

About Ateliê 397

Founded in 2003 by a group of visual artists (Bruna Costa, Rafael Campos Rocha and Sílvia Jábali), Ateliê 397 promotes the diffusion, production and exhibition of contemporary art. It holds art shows and interdisciplinary events involving video art sessions, performances, happenings, music concerts, publication of artist books, and other forms of contemporary art experimentation. Currently coordinated by Marcelo Amorim and Thais Rivitti, the facility plays the role of spreading debate, creating opportunities for artwork to be shown, and presenting productions by young artists from across Brazil.

About Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Associação Cultural Videobrasil is an international reference center on art from the Southern hemisphere. Created by curator Solange Oliveira Farkas, the former director of the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Associação maintains a partnership with SESC. The two institutions have jointly promoted a biennial International Contemporary Art Festival, focused on the geopolitical South circuit, and exhibitions such as Isaac Julien: Geopoetics (São Paulo, 2012), Joseph Beuys – We are the revolution (São Paulo and Salvador, 2010/2011), and Sophie Calle – Take care of yourself (São Paulo and Salvador, 2009). Other ongoing productions of the partnership include the Videobrasil Residency Program; Videobrasil Authors Collection, a series of documentaries; and Caderno SESC_Videobrasil, an annual contemporary art publication. Devised as a platform for production, dissemination and discussion of contemporary art from the Southern hemisphere, by means of partnerships and dialogue with curators, artists and other institutions, Associação also maintains a network of residency partners and educational actions aligned with the Festivals and exhibitions it conceives.

This meeting is an opening activity of a series from the Public Programming segment, a new Videobrasil’s front, dedicated to foster platforms for widening of access and research on contemporary arts and culture.

Fresh Performance Chapter 1: Defining Performance

Leave a comment

FRESH MILK in collaboration with Damali Abrams presents Chapter 1 in the Fresh Performance Project: Defining Performance

Fresh Performance is an experimental documentary that I am working on through a seven-month off-site residency with Fresh Milk. Each month I will interview one artist in New York City and one in the Caribbean concerning different aspects of performance in their respective practices and post the videos online. I will then edit them all into a full-length documentary. My intention is that as artists we can connect with and learn from each other through our work. In my own practice, I use my art as my therapy, my school, my playground and also my surrogate when I need to communicate things that I do not know how to communicate otherwise. Through this project I am studying performance via conversations with a group of exceptional contemporary artists. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with Fresh Milk and all of these talented makers.

Art itself is a nebulous concept that eludes definition. Performance art is that much more precarious. I am drawn to performance because it can encapsulate just about anything else from any medium or discipline. It seems to be somewhat lawless and anarchic. But that is my own personal definition. In chapter one of Fresh Performance, artists Sandra Vivas, originally from Venezuela, currently living in Dominica, and Nyugen E. Smith from Jersey City, share their own definitions.

I met with Nyugen at 59th and Columbus in New York City on a very chilly early Spring day. It was far windier than expected and we scouted around for a location that would not provide too many audio challenges.  We tried inside of a mall, a hotel lobby and finally Nyugen suggested a tunnel at Central Park. It turned out to be perfect.

Sandra Vivas and I met on Google Hangout. Despite many technical difficulties, she and I had a very warm conversation. It was more like speaking with a friend I had known for years rather than someone I was meeting for the first time online. Sandra shared that while she enjoys living in Dominica, she feels very isolated creatively and has not done any performance art there.

This project is a work-in-progress and as stated above, Fresh Performance is intended to remain an open discussion so please feel free to share any questions, comments and critiques.

– Damali Abrams

About Nyugen Smith:

With a fearless approach, multi-media artist Nyugen Smith embraces the role of cultural informer and champion of social justice. Drawing heavily on his West Indian heritage, Smith is interested in raising consciousness of past and present political struggles through his work which consists of sculpture, installation, video and performance. Growing up in Trinidad, Smith was profoundly influenced by the conflation of African cultural practices and the residue of British colonial rule encountered in his daily life on the island. Responding to this unique cultural environment, Smith’s art is a reaction to imperialist practices of oppression, violence and ideological misnomers.

About Sandra Vivas:

Sandra Vivas was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1969 and is currently living in Dominica West. Sandra has developed a body of work that has performance as a permanent thread through her paintings and videos. Irony and humour play a fundamental role in her work and she is considered a feminist performance pioneer in Venezuela. From 1997-2008, Sandra taught at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, in the Undergrad and Graduate Programs of the Escuela de Artes, teaching Contemporary Art History. Sandra studied painting and ballet and has a Bachelors Degree in Art History from the Universidad Central de Venezuela and a Masters Degree in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute, California, USA.

FRESH MILK Prepares to Launch the Colleen Lewis Reading Room Outreach Programme & Virtual Mapping Project

Leave a comment

FRESH MILK is delighted to announce that, through support received from The Maria Holder Memorial Trust here in Barbados, we will soon be launching two major projects extremely dear to our hearts – the Colleen Lewis Reading Room Outreach Programme, and our Virtual Mapping Project.

CLRR poster revised

In an effort to cultivate discussions about the arts starting at a young age while engaging with the community, Fresh Milk will implement an outreach programme using the resources available in The Colleen Lewis Reading Room (CLRR). One of the many challenges faced by young creatives is, despite their artistic gifts, they often struggle when it comes to speaking and writing comprehensively about their work. This is a skill that would benefit immensely from reading, whether specifically arts oriented texts or even well written fiction; gaining an appreciation for articulate material is imperative to mastering one’s own practice.

Fresh Milk proposes to be the go-to point for refining these skills, beginning at CSEC level when children are expected to take their research and written abilities to a higher standard, all the way up to providing MA or PhD candidates with a deep pool of knowledge and unique material which they can draw upon. The Fresh Milk team will work with secondary school teachers in this area to construct a programme which will bring the students to Fresh Milk to show them the studio and reading room, letting them know that there is an environment available which can cater to their academic and creative needs.

 

Our second initiative, the Virtual Mapping Project, addresses the lack of available information about Caribbean arts at the formal, informal and educational levels. Fresh Milk sees value in developing a freely accessible, interactive online map of the Caribbean, which will clearly delineate the existing spaces for the arts in the region, from the nineteenth century up to the present time.

The region will be mapped to show all arts entities, listed with links to the websites of all the spaces, and maintained to keep all information current. This map will not only be a pivotal information hub and educational tool, but a place to form new bonds and to make connections among practitioners, not only in the Caribbean but worldwide.

The Fresh Milk mapping project will be an invaluable resource for students at secondary and tertiary institutions in Barbados, including those studying art at CXC CSEC and CAPE level, BCC Art Associate Degree and BFA programmes, and participants in the BA and MA Cultural Studies and Creative Arts degrees at the EBCCI, UWI Cave Hill Campus. This wealth of knowledge compiled into one easily accessible website means that students can have both historical and current data about Caribbean art at their fingertips, broadening their understanding and keeping up to date with the new, cutting edge work coming out of the region.

Virtual Map Flyer

Additionally, the Virtual Map will create opportunities for artists working in the region today and circulate their works and ideas to a global audience eager to know more about the region’s creative arena. Artists will have the chance to form an expansive network, informing them of what spaces – both formal and informal networks – exist in the region and which spaces they can potentially engage with. It opens up endless possibilities for artists, curators, collectors etc. in the Caribbean by giving them much needed exposure, as well as for those internationally, who will gain insight into a whole new market of quality work.

Fresh Milk seeks to create a more integrated and connected region by using the arts as a vehicle to create partnerships and build community. Many Caribbean islands have no idea what is happening with their neighbours in the creative arts, which hinders our overall growth in the region. The Virtual Map will promote unity and aid in the building of support systems – whether it be the English, Spanish, French or Dutch speaking Caribbean, we would like to make sure all information is communicated as efficiently as possible, and invite the world to see what is being made and to see the region as a critical space.

Fresh Milk is pleased to be the conduit between The Maria Holder Memorial Trust and the artistic community in Barbados and would like to thank them for their support, which allows Fresh Milk to continue supporting our nation’s youth and building capacity for artists in both the short and long term. This is why forming relationships with organizations with vested interest in expanding arts and culture becomes pivotal.

About The Maria Holder Memorial Trust:

The Maria Holder Memorial Trust was created in the memory of the late Maria Holder, a long-time resident of Barbados until her untimely passing in 2004.  The Trust, founded in 2007 by Christopher Holder and Chester Brewster, is dedicated to improving the lives of those in greatest need in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean.  The Trust’s mission is to contribute to the alleviation of poverty and to improve the quality of life of vulnerable people particularly in Barbados.  It seeks to enhance education, learning and training and advance the cultural and artistic expression of young people, and to alleviate the suffering of the sick, elderly, disabled or abused.  The trust principally works with programmes operated by government and registered NGOs or charities.