MFA Fundraiser in support of Versia Harris

May 11, 2017May 11, 2017Leave a comment

Barbadian artist Versia Harris has been accepted into an MFA program at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, USA, and is having a fundraising sale of limited edition artwork to contribute to some of her costs.

Versia is an incredible artist, and she has volunteered and been an enormous help to Fresh Milk for a number of years – please take a look at a statement by Versia below, and click here or on the following image to see her available work and how you can support her!

Incipience No. 1 (edition of 5), Digital Print, 30″ x 32″

Hi Guys! Welcome to my latest fundraising effort. I’ve been accepted into an MFA program at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, USA; I will start in September this year. Most of the funds for me to go have been accounted for, however, there are some extra costs that I still have to acquire. I am selling these limited edition prints to help. If you are able, please purchase one.. or two.. or all! No, seriously any support you can offer would be so appreciated. Even if you can’t, I hope you still enjoy these on-screen images – I must say, though, that the physical is much better 😉

You can email me at versia.abeda@gmail.com for further details about payment methods and shipping options. All questions are welcome.

Thank you!

___________________

About Versia Harris:

Barbadian artist Versia Harris received her BFA in Studio Art in 2012 and was awarded with The Lesley’s Legacy Foundation Award, an annual prize given to the top graduate. She has participated in seven local and international residencies in Barbados, Vermont, Curacao, Trinidad and Brazil. In 2014, Versia’s work was featured in the IV Moscow International Biennial for Young Art themed ‘A Time for Dreams’ and was subsequently selected to be apart of the follow up exhibition MOMENTUM_InsideOut screening of ‘A Time For Dreams’ in Berlin. Her animation ‘They Say You Can Dream a Thing More Than Once’ was awarded ‘Best New Media Film’ at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, 2014 and in 2015 won Best Animation Short in the Barbados Film and Video Association awards. Her first solo show in Barbados was titled “This Quagmire”. She is currently a tutor at Barbados Community College. Versia tackles perceptions of fantasy in contrast to the reality of her invented characters

Fresh Milk featured in Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5 segment on Barbados

February 11, 2016February 11, 2016Leave a comment

Thanks so much to Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5, Boston, for including Fresh Milk in their programme focusing on Barbados, which aired on Monday, February 8, 2016. Take a look at Fresh Milk’s founder Annalee Davis and Barbadian artists Simone Asia and Versia Harris speaking about their work and experiences with the platform.

In this short segment, we share the clip with Lennox Honychurch who speaks about the Morgan Lewis Windmill.

This video is courtesy of Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5. View the original clip on their website here.

Maj Hasager & Ask Kæreby – Week 4 Blog Post

December 10, 2015December 10, 2015Leave a comment

Danish artists Maj Hasager and Ask Kæreby who undertook a residency at Fresh Milk during the month of November share their fourth blog post about a very busy final week in Barbados. The end of their trip included everything from research, sound recordings, a catamaran cruise, an exhibition opening, a workshop and our last public event for 2015, FRESH MILK XVIII. Read more about their packed last days below:

Cannon supporting wall.

It seems now like a distant memory of being warm and sweaty night and day. We have returned to Copenhagen after a detour via London and Cologne, and suddenly the days are even shorter and the evenings and nights seem darker and colder. Winter in Copenhagen is a challenge. It always feels strange to have to reflect back on recent events when shifting location, and it sounds like a voiceover in my mind when trying to reconstruct the pieces and images that go with it.

Waiting for the library to open early Monday morning

At the museum

Our fourth and final week begins in the library of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, which seems to have chosen cryonics as their method for preserving their material. Maj meets with historian Miguel Pena while Ask reads on the formation of workers’ unions and migration to the Canal Zone – until the chatter of his teeth becomes so disturbing that we leave to defrost in the tropical sun. Even this didn’t prepare us fully for the Danish winter though…

We also pay a visit to Government Information Service, located in an unassuming building in the outskirts of town, and seeming to operate with a landline and the phone book as the primary resources. They are the sole distributor of the documentary Diggers, which is the only locally accessible source of footage from the construction of the Panama Canal. As it’s right after lunch, and our contact person is not around, we meet and greet seemingly all employees in the office, as a prolonged discussion over the spelling of the title takes place until we finally leave with DVD and receipt in hand.

Friendly neighbours

Tree in the backyard

Tuesday afternoon we are picked up by a driver, who is struggling to find our location hidden away in the centre of the Island – we are in fact “out of range” according to his company’s definition, and it does feel that way sometimes, which seems curious in such a small place.

Great working conditions

Hydrophone dragged after catamaran

We take the hydrophone sailing off the west coast, capturing some wonderful eerie sounds when anchored or wind powered – though any engine active in the entire bay can be heard clearly. As the sun sets, the visual beauty of the surroundings rivals the sonic seascape.

Versia Harris’ exhibition ‘This Quagmire’ at Punch Creative Arena

Ronald Williams and Katherine Kennedy at the opening of ‘This Quagmire’. Photo by Annalee Davis

On Wednesday morning Maj meets Annalee to have a studio visit on her work. Exciting conversations unfold before we head off to meet Allison Thompson, the director of the fine arts department at Barbados Community College (BCC), where exchanges on pedagogy, teaching methods and structures are shared. In the evening we are attending the opening of This Quagmire, an exhibition by Versia Harris at the Punch Creative Arena in the Morningside Gallery at BCC.

Therese and Maj in conversation. All photos of FRESH MILK XVIII by Dondré Trotman

Ask presenting research and soundings

Beyond Publishing’s presentation

Getting ready for the event

FRESH MILK XVIII

Wednesday is also the final session of the sound workshop, and everyone chips in with fascinating yet very different compositions. We are also busy preparing for FRESH MILK XXVIII, which is quite a packed evening with both of us presenting work, Maj in conversation with Therese Hadchity, and the Beyond Publishing collective presenting their activities as well.

A packed final week, that somehow sums up the intensity of a month’s residency at Fresh Milk. Our suitcases are loaded with reading material and textile works by Mark King when we leave Walkers in St. George. A huge thank you to the wonderful Fresh Milk team: Annalee Davis, Katherine Kennedy, Natalie McGuire and of course also Barbara and Vere Davis. One thing is for sure: We can’t wait to return.

_____________________________

This residency is supported in part by the Danish Arts Foundation

Transoceanic Visual Exchange Caribbean

September 25, 2015October 13, 2015Leave a comment

A survey of film and video works in the Caribbean, Africa and Aotearoa, Transoceanic Visual Exchange (TVE) aims to negotiate the in-between space of our cultural communities outside of traditional geo-political zones of encounter and trade. The three spaces involved – Fresh Milk (Barbados), Video Art Network Lagos (Nigeria) and RM (New Zealand) – first met as participants of International Artist Initiated (IAI), a programme organized and facilitated by David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, in July 2014. TVE intends to build upon these relations and open up greater pathways of visibility, discourse and knowledge production between the artist run initiatives and their regional communities through this laterally curated exhibition project, taking place in Barbados, New Zealand, Nigeria and online.

TVE Caribbean will launch at 7pm on October 14, 2015 at Bagnall Point, BIDC Conference Room, Pelican Village in Bridgetown, Barbados as part of the Barbados Visual Media Festival (BVMF). The exhibition will also be open to the public at that location on October 17, 28 & 30 and features works by:

Versia Harris (Barbados), Katherine Kennedy (Barbados), Michèle Pearson Clarke (Trinidad & Tobago / Canada), Romel Jean Pierre (Haiti), Nick Whittle / Alberta Whittle (Barbados), Rebecca Ann Hobbs (Aotearoa), Ngahuia Raima (Aotearoa), Louisa Afoa (Aotearoa), Nkechi Ebubedike (Nigeria) and Lambert Mousseka (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

There will be additional special screenings taking place at Fresh Milk, The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination (EBCCI) as part of their Film Club Screenings and Barbados Community College (BCC):

October 16, 6pm – Fresh Milk, St. George
Rebecca Ann Hobbs – Mangere bridge 246 / Otara at Night (Aotearoa)

October 22, 7pm – Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination
Darcell Apelu – Slap (Aotearoa)
Akwaeke Emezi – Ududeagu (Nigeria)
Carlo Reyes – Viernes Santo (Dominican Republic)

October 29-30, 10am-4pm – Morningside Gallery, Barbados Community College
Olivia McGilchrist – Riva Mumma (Jamaica)
David Gumbs – Offscreen (St. Martin)

RSVP to the event on Facebook here.

For more information please visit www.transoceanicvisualexchange.com, or email Natalie McGuire at tveproject.caribbean@gmail.com.

Special thanks to the Barbados Film and Video Association (BFVA), EBCCI, BCC and Stansfeld Scott Inc. for making these screenings possible, and to Versia Harris and Katherine Kennedy for designing the logo, digital space and flyers.

Versia Harris travels to Casa Tomada, Sao Paulo

May 20, 2015May 21, 2015Leave a comment

We are excited to announce that Barbadian artist Versia Harris will be going to Sao Paulo, Brazil for seven weeks on Sunday, May 24, 2015 for a residency with Casa Tomada.

This collaborative programme organized between Fresh Milk and Casa Tomada will see Versia working alongside Brazilian artist Janaina Wagner, interacting with arts professionals, producing and showcasing her work, exploring the Brazilian art scene and looking into the possibility of furthering her studies in Sao Paulo.

Congratulations, Versia! We look forward to keeping up with your residency as it progresses!

About Versia Harris:

Versia Harris is a Barbadian artist living and working in Weston, St, James, Barbados. She received her BFA in Studio Art in 2012 and was awarded The Lesley’s Legacy Foundation Award, an annual prize given to the top graduate. She participated in her first residency with Projects and Space in 2011 and has since completed a residency with another local organization called Fresh Milk, followed by a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and residencies at the Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao and Alice Yard, Trinidad in late 2013. In 2014, Versia’s work was featured in the IV Moscow International Biennial for Young Art themed ‘A Time for Dreams’. She was also apart of the follow up exhibition ‘MOMENTUM_InsideOut screening of ‘A Time For Dreams’, Berlin. Her animation ‘They Say You Can Dream a Thing More Than Once’ was awarded ‘Best New Media Film’ at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, 2014. Versia tackles perceptions of fantasy in contrast to the reality of her invented characters.

Work by Evan Avery in Casa Tomada's 'A Casa Recebe' project

About Casa Tomada:

Founded in 2009, Casa Tomada is an independent space for practice, research and reflections of artistic nature. Concerned with the entire process, instead of focusing exclusively on the final work of art, Casa Tomada encourages discussion about emerging contemporary art, not only stimulating the development of artistic and theoretical practices motivated by shared experience, but acting as a catalyst for experiences and connections between artists, researchers, and other independent artistic initiatives. During these years, Casa Tomada organized 8 residences, 2 in partnership with Videobrasil, and one international exchange between São Paulo and London with the Delfina Foundation. Casa Tomada has also run other kinds of programs, all based on young artistic production, connections between different spaces and interdisciplinarity.