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.
Tag: Residency
FRESH MILK’s International Residency Opportunity: Marla Botterill and Conan Masterson
FRESH MILK is very excited to announce our first international residents from our recently launched programme, Canadian artists Marla Botterill and Conan Masterson, who will be on the platform from the 1st-31st of May 2013.
Marla Botterill received her B.F.A from Queen’s University, Ontario, and went on to pursue her M.F.A. at the University of Waterloo, which she obtained in 2003. She has exhibited widely in Ontario, Canada, including the solo show Close to the Skin at the AWOL Gallery in 2007, and most recently in the group exhibition In a Pinch, The Eleanor Pearl Gallery, 2013. She also exhibited in Berlin, Germany during the months of July-September 2011, where she took part in the Takt Artist Residency programme. Her work explores recurring characters through a combination of painting, drawing, collage and puppets that generate interwoven fictional narratives.
The role of time also plays a crucial role in my work. Paintings and drawings exist in the past, the process of creation ends once the image is completed; it remains as a record of that labour. A viewer may reinterpret the painting or drawing, its context may change, but the object itself does not change. Contrastingly, a puppet exists in the eternal present, it only serves its function when it is moving; the process of creation does not end once the puppet is built, that is the moment when it begins. – Marla Botterill
Website: http://www.marlabotterill.com/
Conan Masterson received a B.F.A. from Concordia University Majoring in Studio Arts, and in 2007 earned an M.F.A. from The University of Western Ontario. Her solo exhibitions include Sea Dab Jig at the Full Tilt Creative Centre, McIvers, Newfoundland, and earlier this year she took part in the group exhibition Process and Place at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. Her residency experiences include: the MECA Baie Sainte-Marie Artist Residency in New Edinburgh, Nova Scotia, Harold Arts – Do Do II Session in Chesterhill, Ohio and the Fibres Student Association, St. Charles Borromée, Quebec. Her work aims to perceptually alter the traditional gallery space, manipulating the physical materials of sculptural installation and the audience in a way that is both impulsively humorous and unsettlingly carnivalesque.
My practice involves transforming my studio into an unusual workshop. While tinkering within it, I create absurd and abstract forms that are bizarre yet oddly familiar. From the readymade to bits and pieces, I play intuitively with my collection of luscious and mundane materials. These anthropomorphized objects then become curious, slightly freakish, installations… A necessary function of the work is the blurring of boundaries between the spectacle and the spectator. It is in this intriguing terrain I situate my work; a discomforting, beguiling landscape, impossible to resist. – Conan Masterson
Website: http://www.conanmasterson.com/
Although both artists have worked closely for years, this residency at FRESH MILK will be their first collaborative venture. Botterill and Masterson are keen to explore the extensive grounds around Fresh Milk for inspiration in the development of their project, where they wish to create a series of puppets and a fictional habitat for them to function within the local landscape. This International Residency Programme will also provide an opportunity to promote an exchange of ideas between the two artists, as well as develop relationships within the Barbadian creative community.
Mark King’s Residency – Week 4 Report
The final week found me producing an origami piece while circling back to the work that was in pre-production before arriving at Fresh Milk. After returning to the previous work it became clear that there was a narrative running through the series. Convertibles Are Better Than Warrants had grown legs.
What I thought was to be the simplest of the three origami pieces turned out to be the most challenging. By Thursday I had spent an entire week on it. Moments after drawing the last line it was hanging on the wall next to the targets and other folded pieces. It reads: If They Can Fog A Mirror; Fund ‘Em. The Triptych is titled, If They Can Fog A Mirror Fund ‘Em A Piece of Shit.
Friday morning involved presenting to a group of curators and other creative industry folk from Brazil, Barbados, and the UK at Fresh Milk. A small group of contemporary Barbadian artists made up of Ewan Atkinson, Janelle Griffith, Shanika Grimes, Katherine Kennedy, Fresh Milk founder Annalee Davis and myself spoke for a few minutes about our creative process and current projects.
The following day I ran a portraiture workshop with the Graydon Sealy Secondary School’s photography club as part of my community outreach through Fresh Milk. Although I’ve been teaching photography to university students for the past few years, this was the first time running a workshop for kids; not early 20 somethings. They really got into the work of Vivian Maier and Cindy Sherman. But understandably they were most interested in taking photos than talking about them. I’ll make sure to share a few of their photos in a later post.
I stopped by Barbadian designer and good friend, Elena Branker’s studio yesterday to pick up the garment we collaborated on for the project. It’s a tan linnen vest featuring 20 pockets where Bear Stearns playing cards rest. I think of it as part magician/drug mule/suicide bomber vest.
Fresh Milk marks my third artist residency. Last summer I did a 2 week residency at Alice Yard in Port Of Spain, Trinidad and in February/March of 2011 I took part in a 3 week screen printing residency at the Frans Masereel Centrum in Kasterlee, Belgium. My residency experiences serve as reminders that I’m on the right track. Nothing makes me happier than creating new work in a supportive environment free of distraction.
Massive thanks to the Fresh Milk team for being amazing hosts. You have inspired me to one day create my own treehouse studio with an abundance of coffee and banana bread.
Mark King’s Residency – Week 2.5 Report!
The idea came to me while lying awake in bed staring at the dusty ceiling fan. My ah ha moment birthed a typographical algorithm for each piece I was to create. I quickly found a need to measure every pen stroke as I got down to sketching the first draft.
I began with a base fish fold. Then took on the frog fold. I practiced. And practiced. First on 8.5″ x 8.5″ office paper and later graduated to 17″ x 17″ thicker student grade paper. The base fold patterns really intrigued me. The symmetry and the creased thick paper felt right. Thin origami specialty paper is normally used for the folds. But I wanted to go with thicker paper for a more strained pattern.
The first piece, Triple-A, consists of the letter “A” mirrored and repeated. The piece on the right reads, Piece Of Shit. The diptych refers to the triple-A rating Bear Stearns’ mortgage backed securities received from the rating agency, Moody’s. The firm referred to these as a Piece of Shit in internal emails.
The slightest lapse would wipe away 4+ hours of progress. This happened so many times. I’ve had a lot on my mind recently and this is part of the reason why I took on making origami patterns in the first place. It’s a cathartic process.
What I created this past week.5 is oddly in line with the targets that I brought to the residency already in production. In working out of Fresh Milk’s studios I am surrounded by an ocean of fractals. Repeating patterns are everywhere. It provides amazing inspiration for where this series is going. Maybe this is the common thread holding everything together.
Mark King’s Residency – Week 1 Report
I was greeted by Versia Harris knocking out work in the studio to the sounds of a very eclectic playlist on the first day of the Fresh Milk Residency. I carved out a space in the reading room to get started and laid out my supplies.
I came in with an on-going project in mind. One that centers around the recent financial crisis and banking scandals of our time. The project has taken my work in new directions. And I have yet to make a photograph. I will continue down this path of exploration for the month that I am here.
Week one was more about feeling out the space. Creating from the heart of the Barbadian countryside is unlike anything I have experienced. Birds, wind chimes, cows, roosters, and rustling leaves make up the soundscape. It’s the perfect creative incubator.
The environment is also great for failing. Something I’m really enjoying during this residency. I brought a book with me from home on Origami that I had been meaning to try out for a while. Craft isn’t my strong suit, which gives me more reason to play with the medium. Origami takes a high level of concentration and its pursuit guarantees failure. It’s humbling to go through a stack of paper when trying the simplest folding pattern.
Things are starting to come together. Outside of the studio space I continue to work on the pieces that were in pre-production leading up to the residency. Leaving new work to be explored while in the Fresh Milk studio.
I’m here until mid April. If you’re on island stop by and say hi.
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