US-based filmmaker of Guyanese and Nigerian descent Chelsea Odufu shares her second vlog post about her international artist residency at Fresh Milk in Barbados. She talks through her experiences navigating the island, learning her way around and in so doing beginning to build familiarity with people and places. She also gave a talk to students at the Barbados Community College (BCC), where she screened her film Ori Inu: In Search of Self. Read more below:
German-born, Johannesburg-based visual artist Philipp Pieroth shares his first blog post about his Fresh Milk residency. Philipp’s first week has seen him delve into research about Bajan culture & identity, and he is now balancing his original concept with his natural work process, which is organic, intuitive and fueled by stimuli in his environment and his emotional connection to his pieces. Read more below:
It’s been a week now since I arrived in Barbados and started my Fresh Milk residency. I received a warm welcome by the team, and am excited to finally be here.
Since I am a very intuitive worker, it has been challenging for me to work with a predetermined concept – the proposal I wrote for the residency investigating Bajan Identity – which frames me and my work in a certain way. I realized that I was trying to stick to this idea too closely. Hence, while I am still researching this topic, I’m trying to be free at the same time, allowing myself to step out of it.
My creative process is an organic one that allows itself to bend, crack and change from its original attempt or idea. I never know what might happen during the work. Though I have a concept or an image in mind, I enjoy and need it to be dynamic, and welcome unexpected changes and accidents. That makes my paintings alive and engaging. Usually, my concept is rather abstract and emotional, only being defined by words after the work is done. So at this point I am trying to balance these things in order to get into my workflow.
Chelsea Odufu, a US-based filmmaker of Guyanese and Nigerian descent, shares her first vlog post documenting her artist residency at Fresh Milk for the month of October 2017. Chelsea has spent the first week working through her first impressions of Barbados and grappling with being immersed in the island’s history.
US-based interdisciplinary artist Nyugen Smith shares his final blog post about his recently completed residency at Fresh Milk. Nyugen’s last post takes the form of poetic musings, looking at experiences he had in Barbados and how they informed his views and his work. Further images and texts expanding on some of his performance pieces – including an intervention held at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society in collaboration with Barbadian artist Llanor Alleyne and a live performance done at FRESH MILK XXI – will follow. Read more here:
FRESH MILK XXI – Photo by Dondré Trotman
Day 26
Everyday –
Rising just after the sun
after four maybe 5 hours of rest,
my body follows mind into action
as I ask the day for all that’s good.
in the process?
-each day-
body of man + body of woman
quiet they sat
on concrete curved
holding the walk way.
their faces leaned close
to the broad leaves
and more leaves
rose above their heights and blocked light.
they were cooled.
~as if by blue light~
they were cooled.
just across the bridge
they were
a little distance from the fairchild bus depot-
where a steady stream
of loading and unloading
travelers
jostled to the tune
of signature horns
and conductors who
shouted down
man woman child
to the chorus of
multiple destinations.
load ’em up
load ’em up.
the twin seats always had three
and the ledge behind
the passenger riding shotgun
usually sat two.
the conductor stood
hunched over perspiring heads
they inhaled (usually) him
sometimes her ~(only once I saw)~
collecting crumpled cash
handed over
like the act
was powered by contempt
or ambivalence
or coolness
like the bills had little value
no matter the color.
though the rush
of the journey
in and out of town
fueled my spirit and
grounded the work
made there and
created sparks for more to come,
i was ready to be home.
**my residency culminated with a new performance in the fresh milk studio that was informed by much of what i had learned and experienced during my time in barbados. i also created and intervention at the barbados museum and historical society in collaboration with bajan artist, llanor alleyne. images of both are being organized to be coupled with writing and will be uploaded to my website soon**
thank you to the fresh milk team for the wonderful experience and for the invaluable network and resources provided. i am eternally grateful!
-One Love
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US-based interdisciplinary artist Nyugen Smith shares his third blog post about his recently completed residency at Fresh Milk. Nyugen reflects on part of his time in Barbados and the sensitivity of some of the issues he is attempting to unpack through his work, as he begins to navigate the history of the island in conjunction with the contemporary realities and nuances of its complex culture. Read more below:
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Day 6
I pity them greatly but I must be mum,
For how could we do without sugar and rum?
-William Cowper
Every night is a time to reflect on the events of that day, yesterday, and the day before that.
Today (6/9/17) is one day short of a week that I have been here in this place where there weren’t many places for a runaway to hide. Flat land. Coral rock holding points of pressure always a reminder that one day, almost all of this, if not the highest point of this mass, will look upwards to refractions of light filtered by a mix of salt and fresh water. I see shells at my feet in places that provide an overview of flowering fields, marveling at the magic produced by the perfect length of day. There isn’t much soil here. So I’ve heard. I couldn’t help but wonder how one buries the dead. My mind ran through the file of flora and fauna my eyes have registered since landing. To think that their roots do not run deep. Or maybe they possess the strength and capacity to carve their way through the limestone floor because they must.
I wondered. Every time that I see banks of this almost rock that flank the roads I travel, I want to measure the depth of dirt that rests atop like frosting on sponge cake slices. I am curious. Six or seven inches of soil is all it takes for “white gold” to situate itself in this part of what Andrea Stuart referred to as a “European world”, to the south and west of England’s winter.
…continued on 7/6/17 post-residency…
“It’s Complicated”… is a phrase that became popular on social media platforms as a way to describe relationships between two individuals when either one or both parties dance between acknowledging the other as a romantic/committed partner and not doing so. This could be due to reasons that may or may not include external pressures, unresolved prior romantic/committed relationships, apprehension to absorb one another’s “baggage”, lingering questions regarding long-term effects on one’s social status, fear of personal sacrifices that are inevitiable for the relationship to work, and or unaddressed psychological trauma that hinders one or both parties from being able to commit to the “long-haul” together.
As a guest in Barbados, the home of 285,750 people, I quickly became aware of topics of conversation that if spoken of, would complicate the weather underground and perhaps prompt the removal of lavalier microphones with a muttering of “we’re done here…” This early awareness was not derived from my own assumptions or conclusion drawn from tangential musings, but directly spoken to me by Bajan citizens. There was no mistaking the message bottled in the words…
f-f-f-f-f-f-fear
sen-s-s-s-s-sitive
am-m-m-m-ne-e-e-e-sia
e-e-era-a-a-sure
den-i-i-i-ial
protective-v-v-ve
in-secur-r-r-r-re
sus-s-s-spicion
…these words are like the togetherness of flies on a pile of shit
bothered by strong breeze
and boots barely too close.
bothered for good reason.
if spoken (topics) they do a number of things:
they
carry a threat of a future removal of the flies’ feast
they
add pressure that spreads the feast thin over a wider area, making it easier for more to take part in the spoils
they
carry the scent across a distance simultaneously attracting more to buzz about in the mess and causes others to close off parts of themselves as to not absorb any
they
smear the pile taking with them a trail wherever they go. at least – a small sample ends up in the home of the hot stepper
Despite the words of caution and warnings, I, the guest, stepped in the pile.
I, the guest, was smearing, spreading, and stirring up the mess with the work I was doing.
There was one instance in particular where I was asked to stop.
To speak the name,
Barbados
is to spray the air
with a mist of sea salt and
the smell of green-
for bush and deep waters are never far.
To speak its name
is to swaddle the body with hospitality
and rock it with musical vibrations of the region.
To speak its name
is to draw from its wells of intellectual tradition.
But you cannot speak the name,
Barbados
without the bitter taste of
black death soaked
in the juice of Saccharum officinarum
lingering on lips
warmed by the Caribbean sun.
For sugarcane to have earned the moniker “white gold”, scientific means had to have been employed to develop and improve its quality, while maximizing its production. There were people at the helm of this scientific research. Parallel to this timeline that ensured the success and longevity of the sugarcane industry, existed a systematically constructed labor force comprised of enslaved Africans and their descendants. The success of the plantation system (slavery) in Barbados was a model for the colonies in North America. As sugarcane was and is selectively bred, enslaved Africans and their descendants born into slavery in Barbados were also bought and sold-their value determined by their physical attributes and skills. I am intrigued by the historical and contemporary societal relationships between the two and plan to investigate this and the sensitivity of these matters more in my practice.
Engaging in conversations about this, is not for the ill-prepared. Preparation is a must. Patience must be had, composure maintained and its important for all engaged parties to be present with a willingness to bridge gaps of understanding within “the complicated”. If not now… when?
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fresh milk barbados 