Fresh Milk is excited to welcome our fifth set of residents for 2015, Australian inter‐disciplinary artists of Caribbean extraction, Willoh S. Weiland and Halcyon Macleod. They will be with us between April 20 – May 23, 2015 working on their collaborative project ‘Crawl Me Blood’, a sound installation inspired by the works of Dominican writer Jean Rhys and her masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea. Read more below:

Willoh S. Weiland and Halcyon Macleod are two artists from Australia who are currently in-residency at the Fresh Milk Platform. During their stay, they are writing and creating a performance and sound work called Crawl Me Blood. As part of their research for the project, they will be conducting a series of interviews with a number of women in Australia and in the Caribbean.

Crawl Me Blood is inspired by the work of Dominican author Jean Rhys, especially her famous book Wide Sargasso Sea, the artists’ own family histories in the Caribbean Region and a feminist reading of the biblical story of Eden.

They are starting their research by focusing on the idea of ‘paradise’; what causes us to long for particular landscapes and how women imagine paradise through creating or visiting gardens,  cooking and eating delicious food. They are especially interested in the way food connects us to memories of people and places.

The artists are inviting members of the public to meet with them and talk about these ideas.  An audio recording of these conversations will be made. Interviews can be anonymous.

Interviewees will be paid a modest stipend. The artists will be in residence from April 20th and open to arranging meetings on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10am and 5pm.

The artists would like to engage in dialogue with a variety of women, including:

• Academic/Writer
• Radio host
• Performer/ Actor/ Artist
• Older woman (60 +)
• Middle aged woman (40+)
• Younger woman (in her 20s)

If you are interested in participating in this project, please email willoh@aphids.net and halcyonmacleod@gmail.com.

About the artists:

Willoh S. Weiland (Artistic Director, Aphids) and Halcyon Macleod (Co-Director, My Darling Patricia) are interdisciplinary artists and directors of the independent arts organisations Aphids and My Darling Patricia.

Their mutual interests are in writing and creating contemporary performance works that respond to the site in which they are created and the result of extensive research and development.

They have created works for major Australian Festivals including the Sydney and Darwin International Arts Festivals as well as for prolific presenters such as Performance Space, Carriageworks, Cambelltown Arts Centre, Sydney and the Arts Centre, Arts House and Malthouse Theatre Melbourne.

This residency is supported in part by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Alcorso Foundation and Arts Tasmania.