The Fresh Milk website has now had over 100,000 views! Our team sends gratitude to everyone who has shown interest in and continues to follow our activities. We promise to keep sharing our work and that of the talented creatives we support.
Much more to come!
ART APPRECIATION: WHAT’S THIS THING CALLED CONTEMPORARY ART?
WHERE: Barbados Community College (BCC), Art Division of Fine Arts, Morningside Campus, Art History Room
WHEN: October 3rd – December 19th 2013 (Thursday nights)
TIME: 5.30PM – 8.30PM
COST: $400.00 to be paid before class starts on October 3rd
HOW TO REGISTER: Go to Student Affairs in the Administration block at BCC. The registration form can be downloaded here.
DATES: October 3, 10, 16, (Wednesday) 24, 31; November 14, 21, 28; December 12, 19.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This Art Appreciation Course is designed to provide you with a basic understanding of the contemporary visual arts produced in Barbados, the Caribbean and its diaspora, with a focus on emerging and contemporary practices. Through material covered in this course, you will become familiar with work being produced by select contemporary creatives working in Barbados, the Caribbean and further afield which may include looking at major Caribbean exhibitions. A selection of ART 21 videos will be screened showcasing interviews with contemporary artists from around the world, speaking about their practices. The introductory presentation will speak to ways of looking at art allowing you to develop a strategy to discuss and understand works of art. This course will also cover the increased presence and role of informal art spaces throughout the region and their impact on the contemporary art space. The elements that comprise a developed creative economy will be explored. Guest speakers will join some of the weekly sessions, exposing you to the richness of creatives working in Barbados. At least one off-site class will allow you to experience an event showcasing contemporary creatives sharing and speaking about their practices.
COURSE OBJECTIVE: The objective of this ten-session course is to develop an awareness of and appreciation for contemporary art practice. This framework will enable you to expand your understanding of the contemporary arts arena, stimulate critical thinking generally, and enhance your enjoyment of art. The course is suitable for enhancing your general knowledge about the arts and may stimulate confidence for the budding art collector.
ABOUT THE TUTOR: Annalee Davis is a part-time tutor in the BFA programme at the BCC. She is a practicing visual artist whose work exposes tensions within the larger context of a post-colonial Caribbean history and observes the nature of post-independent (failing) nation states. She explores notions of home, longing and belonging; questions the parameters that define who belong (and who doesn’t), and is concerned with issues surrounding the shifting landscapes of the archipelago. She has exhibited her work throughout the Caribbean and internationally since 1989. Annalee completed a BFA at the Maryland Institute, College of Art and an MFA at the Mason Gross School for the Arts, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She works from her studio, The Milking Parlour in St. George, Barbados. In August 2011 she founded The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc., a platform for conversation about contemporary art and a space supporting emerging talent.
For more on Fresh Milk visit www.freshmilkbarbados.com and for more on her practice visit www.annaleedavis.com. For more information email annalee@annaleedavis.com
Day/Night
Above/Below
Leisure/Work
East coast/West coast
Rain/Sun
Wake/Sleep
There is a strong contrast between the night and the day here. The contrast is not just one of light, though this contrast is severe. In the day the sun is blazing, but the darkness falls early and quickly, cloaking the island in darkness. Was there a moon the first week? If there was, we didn’t see it. The sounds and smells change; it is almost as if they are two entirely different places. There is a mystery to this island; it is felt most keenly at night. Perhaps we feel this contrast more being in the country and away from the lights and traffic of the city, but we feel that mystery, pulsing around us like the oceans and enveloping us in the darkness.
In conversations with the people here we’ve learned of the caves beneath us. As fellow resident, Mathew Kupakwashe Murrell pointed out to us, the whole island is formed over limestone caves. Is this a space where are puppet characters could come from? Have they bubbled up from the dark, damp, mysterious caves beneath to the lush, sun-filled land above? How long have they been here? How have they evolved to live on this island? They are taking on characteristics of the vegetation, animal, insect, bird and amphibian life above, but there is an unnerving quality to them, they come from that place of mystery. In the past two weeks we have jointly created a small ensemble of puppet creatures that will continue to grow but now we must listen to them, hear their stories and take them out of the studio and allow them to explore this island where they come from.
We had our own chance to explore this week, we were taken on an island tour by Joscelyn Gardner, the love of her homeland is palpable and contagious. A collector of stories herself, she shares a combination of local history and personal anecdotes with us. The tour turned into a double-night sleepover at the family’s cottage on the Southeast coast, where we had a mini-vacation and also experienced the deluge of a tropical rainstorm. The rain comes as quickly as the night, you fear it will never stop, but it can leave just as abruptly and replaced once again by the sun. The rugged Atlantic coastal landscape is such a contrast to the manicured calm of the Caribbean west coast; Fresh Milk is conveniently located in the middle of these extremes, a rural, hilly centre point. We want to take our puppets out into these contrasting landscapes.
The platform at Fresh Milk continues to be a hub of activity and a place of networking and interchange. We are finding our days are becoming more productive as we begin to feel at home here. Though no matter how hard we try, we cannot wake up early enough to start the day as early as the Bajans do! On May 16th FM hosted ‘A Performative Moment’ with Northern Kentucky University and we were happy to be included with the past and current residents of FM and to be given the opportunity to briefly present our individual and shared practice. Even though Annalee and Katherine are both abroad, we feel very looked after by the people (and pets) of Barbados. Winston Kellman dropped by FM one morning to return a book and see our progress so far. We had an interesting discussion about Barbados, we focused around the night/day contrast and as he left, he wished us “many more sleepless nights.”
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.
Mark King, FRESH MILK’s resident artist for the month of April 2013 shares the work he did while on the platform.
For more on Mark’s work, visit his website and artist blog.
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