THE PROJECT
It is our pleasure to present InSitu, a site specific contemporary art project created in collaboration with The Flower Forest Botanical Garden.
Punch Creative Arena developed InSitu as a welcomed opportunity to work on a curatorial project not confined by gallery interiors; a project that offered artists a chance to experiment with outdoor sculptural pieces, in response to or inspired by the environment in which the work is experienced.
We gathered together a group of artists that we have had the pleasure of collaborating with before, working with them to develop ideas born out of their own conceptual concerns and inspiration from the garden itself. In the process we have all overcome many challenges and many delays, yet the experiment has produced engaging and thought provoking results. Some artists chose to produce works that operate as interventions, moments of pause that gently disrupt the serene environment. Other pieces exist as subtle extensions of the garden itself, embedded in plant life or reflecting the natural elements that surround the work… and the viewer.
The works will be installed on a rolling basis and will remain in the garden for future visitors to encounter.
RECEPTION AND ARTIST TALK
We invite you to visit the garden in the coming weeks as pieces get added.
On Sunday December 13th at 3pm we invite you to tour the work.
Come earlier if you desire a relaxing extended walk through the garden.
At 4pm we will hold the InSitu edition of our popular ‘HotSeat’ artist talk series when the artists will discuss their work.
Support
InSitu and the InSitu HotSeat would not be possible without generous support from the Butterworth family and AFM Industries. We would also like to thank Purple Palm Framed Art and Mirrors for donating the mirror for Dominique Hunter’s installation.
FLOWER FOREST
Located at Richmond Plantation, about 850 feet (270 metres) above sea level near the western edge of the Scotland District, is the one of the most breathtaking areas of Barbados.
Richmond was a sugar cane Plantation in its early days of Barbados agricultural history. Although spectacularly beautiful, it was not a model sugar producer. Driven by the brawn of Don Hill, Flower Forest opened for business in December 1983 after two years of layout by Richard Coghlan from Kew Gardens.
Flower Forest is open 8am to 4pm 7 days a week, closed only Christmas Day
and Good Friday.
THE ARTISTS
AS EACH ARTIST’S WORK IS INSTALLED, THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH IMAGES AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORK.
FOR NOW, THESE IMAGES OFFER A SNEAK PEEK AT THE WORK.
COMPLETE IMAGES WILL BE APPEAR AFTER OUR RECEPTION AND ARTIST TALK, ON DECEMBER 13TH at 4PM
SIMONE ASIA
Simone completed her Associate Degree in Applied Arts (Visual Arts) and a Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art (BFA, Hons) at Barbados Community College.
She has participated in a number of important residencies including Alice Yard in Trinidad and Tobago, Ateliers ’89 in Aruba, Projects and Space Barbados, Fresh Milk and Punch Creative Arena based in Barbados. In 2016, Simone won the Central Bank Governor’s award presented by the National Cultural Foundation. Simone currently teaches drawing and illustration in the Visual Arts Associate degree programme at the Barbados Community College
Asia is best known for her detailed pen and ink line drawings which increasingly include a highly sensitive use of colour. Her recent work has also incorporated collage that embodies a fusion of shapes, designs and textures in which she explores ideas of the self.
Accinctum Nostrum, Nigredo Sol and Exercitum
This series of work is inspired by the environment of the flower forest which resulted in an urge to recreate my two dimensional pieces in sculptural form.
Though I am not a master of sculpture, I took this opportunity as a challenge and experiment to encourage development in my practice.
Viewing the garden, the most profound sight for me was the invasive nature of many different species of plants layered amongst each other.
I decided to create my own foreign body of invasive plants.
Strange but familiar, birthed from another dimension.
VERSIA HARRIS
Versia received her BFA in Studio Art in 2012. In the years following, she volunteered at two art organisations in Barbados; Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. and Punch Creative Arena. She was awarded a Fulbright Laspau Scholarship in 2017 and received her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan USA in May, 2019. Versia currently teaches in the Studio Art BFA programme at the Barbados Community College.
Versia's ongoing interest in fantasy has led her to think about the ways dreams, ideals, wishes and desires of an individual, society or culture eventually shape the physical. She uses fantasy, idealism and imagination to metaphorically address the human condition and explore various theories about identity, land, political control, acts and ideas of power and media influence.
WEBSITE
It That Sees Everything
It that sees only what it needs to. It that observes from up there. That which is detached from the watched. Control your own affairs. Shuffle the deck. Properly.
DOMINIQUE HUNTER
Guyanese artist Dominique Hunter received her Diploma from the E.R. Burrowes School of Art in 2007 and completed her BFA at the Barbados Community College.
She has since exhibited work in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Miami, and has participated in residencies including Caribbean Linked IV(Aruba) and the Vermont Studio Center (USA), after being awarded the Reed Foundation Fellowship.
Culling information from various archives and feminist texts (often with alternating and overlapping perspectives from both sides of the oppressor/oppressed binary) Hunter uses her work to critique the (mis/non)-representation of Black female bodies in art historical text and imageries as well as the stereotypical portrayals of those bodies in contemporary print media.
Better on the Other Side
Concepts of “here” and “there” within the Caribbean context and viewed through the lens of binary oppositional thinking, point to a distorted perception that stems from how the region’s residents are typically trained to consider each space (i.e. anywhere else is better than “here”).
Better on the Other Sideis part of an ongoing series titled Cuspthat examines how we navigate those two spaces; what we take with us; what gets left behind; the artificial systems designed to control our individual and collective movements; and the emotional responses triggered as a result of these.
This series presents some of my own experiences with what could be referred to as “mini migrations,” or the process of constantly uprooting and resettling in the hopes of finding and sustaining new opportunities for creative growth. It addresses themes of escapism, transformation, vulnerability and anxiety that are often closely linked to this cyclical process.
For the InSitu project, Better on the Other Side was intentionally reduced in both colour as well as composition to allow the vibrancy of the reflected environment to be more prominently read in the exposed areas that reveal the mirror support the work is mounted on.
KATHERINE KENNEDY
Katherine Kennedy is an artist and writer. She graduated with a BA in Creative Arts (First Class Hons.) from Lancaster University, UK. She has exhibited and taken part in numerous projects and residencies locally, regionally and internationally. Katherine is the Communications and Operations Manager for the Fresh Milk Art Platform in Barbados, and has contributed to ARC Magazine of contemporary Caribbean art as a Writer, Editor and the Assistant to Director. In 2019, Katherine curated Social Geometry: Expanded Drawing Practices by Barbadian Artists at the Queen’s Park Gallery, in Barbados.
Her visual practice is heavily tied to a sense of place, using interplay between organic and inorganic materials and imagery to interrogate the spectrum of belonging and displacement in different environments or cultural contexts.
‘Invasive Species’ Series
This ongoing series attempts to interrogate ideas of escapism, often used by tourists when regarding the Caribbean, from an internal point of view. By transfiguring the world around me to simultaneously emanate fantasy, natural beauty and farce, I ask what an escape might look like for someone entrenched in the reality of this region – can its beauty be enjoyed or celebrated, while also problematizing the exploitation of the Caribbean, pushing back against a one-dimensional reading of this space?
Drawing from my own lived experience, I am working with materials and practices/tropes often assigned as feminine in society, using labour intensive processes to repurpose personal objects and manipulate textiles to birth an alternate environment of new 'species' within the bountiful setting of the Flower Forest. I have also begun experimenting with plastic tampon applicators, both as visually appealing objects which appear organic/inorganic and as something which very intimately crosses a boundary of man-made items intersecting a natural process – not unlike the invasiveness of the paradise narrative. The work is increasingly referencing not only flora or fauna, but anatomical/biological imagery and processes in form and materials, extending the fantasy of escaping not only from one’s outer environment, but from one’s own body.
Some of the work installed almost seems to have grown naturally in the forest, integrating with the existing plant life which itself can seem unreal in its allure, while others are more aggressive in their insertion in the space; more creature-like and encroaching in how they inhabit the garden and confront the viewer. The combination of natural occurrence versus conscripted implantation echoes the nature of Flower Forest as a botanical garden, balancing a curated and manicured space with the inherent unpredictability of wildlife and vegetation. Tying back to the constructed ideas of paradise and escapism, no matter what expectations are projected onto a place, its capacity to independently propagate and evolve rather than conform should never be underestimated – neither by visitors nor by residents.
GABRIELLE MOORE
Barbadian Gabrielle Moore graduated from the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the Barbados Community College in 2017 and has taken part in a variety of local group exhibitions.
Gabrielle works in a variety of media and her choice depends on her area of concentration and what her work calls for at a particular time. Her work consists mainly of 3D conceptual assemblages in which she examines the intersect between pleasure and pain as it manifests both psychologically and physically. She does this through the manipulation of visual and textural characteristics of objects which brings us as humans a sense of comfort and security.
TAMED
For this project, I continued to explore the coexistence of pleasure and pain within the home, while questioning the way in which we would view this setting as opposed to what each individual is accustomed to. Would the viewer feel comfortable enough to approach and interact with the piece or would they be hesitant upon recognition of its deceptive qualities? I approached this by using materials with opposite characteristics, to the original more comforting attributes that are usually seen in this environment within the home. I sought to bring about visually a comfortable and relaxed feeling to the space, by creating an aesthetically pleasing and inviting scene, while simultaneously disrupting it with these harsh materials.
KRAIG YEARWOOD
Kraig is a Barbadian artist and designer. Yearwood studied graphic design at Barbados Community College. He has worked as a freelance graphic designer, and has also worked as lead designer for his self owned clothing label where he has showcased at some of the region’s biggest fashion weeks. He regularly uses mixed media in his visual art practice. He has exhibited in numerous local and international group shows and five solo exhibitions.
Kraig’s approach to his work is partially intuitive while often informed by minimalist sensibilities, and lists eclectic influences such as introspection, relationships, nature and local and global current affairs for much of his production.
Contemplation Stool” and “Orange Morris
Recently I've started to become increasingly interested in how we see space. Who owns it, who has access, how it's used or abused and navigated?
On exploring the grounds of the Flower Forest I became enthralled by the many vistas as well as the more intimate nooks. My initial idea was to produce a single seater sculptural stool, where one might tuck into the landscape in quiet contemplation. My second sculpture takes it's inspiration from the traditional Morris chair. I wanted to create a fun, bold and brightly coloured piece that would stand out in the space as well as celebrating the exuberance of the botanical garden.
DAVID SPIELER
Manager of Flower Forest Botanical Gardens and Earthworks pottery, David Spieler Studied at the University of Edinburgh and later taught at Harrison College, his alma mater, before joining Earthworks Pottery. David’s love and appreciation of art, horticulture and the environment are evident in his caring attention to the continued development of the Flower Forest and Earthworks, his commitment to the Barbados Future Centre Trust, and the design and construction of the environmentally themed ceramic mural project in Warrens, Barbados.
WINDOW OF HOPE
Borne one month into the lockdown due to the Corona Virus, the “Window of Hope” is a work that was driven out of a feeling of total despair. The time usually would have been a busy and profitable one; that is, under any normal circumstance. But this was a total loss of patronage and even the ability to move around the island. We were literally confined to our homes, and every single possibility to do business ceased.
It was a very introspective time.
As the sculpture progressed it was to be a ‘Portal to a Better World’, and if one climbed through it that new world would manifest; but as the days went in I realized that far from a cruel, horrid world; everything else in the world seemed at peace and in harmony. It was just humans who were in crisis. The rest of the world went in as it always does.
Which was hopeful, and beautiful. I found peace, and hope.
So I called it the ‘Window of Hope’, with the expressed wish that if we can just look through it and possibly see far enough forwards, we may find that better place sooner, rather than later.
KIA REDMAN
Kia Redman is a Barbados-based creative professional. Having attained her BFA in Studio Art with first-class honours from the Barbados Community College in 2017, Kia has since participated in shows, residencies and screenings across the Caribbean, North America, Europe and China.
She works as a camera operator at Bajans in Motion and a videographer for Acute Vision Inc. Through her passion for the moving image, Kia freelances as an illustrator and animator and incorporates the colours, behaviours and vibrancy of her home into the dynamic multimedia style that informs her work both digital and physical.
Laced with a deceptively probing levity, Kia’s work unveils alternative perspectives on history, culture and belonging through unexpected and at times conflicting narratives centered around paradise, the environment and contemporary Caribbean identities.
The Supplantation
Since the dawn of mankind, human beings have been trying to conquer nature. In our efforts to tame and colonize, we have stripped the planet of its natural resources, polluted the environment and threatened the lives of every other being living amongst us. Where nature once reigned supreme, humanity does.
But that was before the pandemic hit…
In the final moments of 2019, a virus emerged and spread across every country in the world. Governments instituted quarantines and lockdowns. Human beings, for the first time in a very long time, could not walk the face of the earth.
Empty of its colonizers, the wildlife returned. Animals ventured into spaces they had lost the right to traverse, sea waters and the air cleared without the constant onslaught of human pollution and without people to maintain the fight, plantlife started taking over manmade spaces.
The Supplantation depicts this struggle between man and nature. The columns stand in a manicured field representing the taming of nature. Starting short and shiny, they grow in height to symbolize mankind’s rise to power. Gradually as the sculpture continues, they rust and shrink in height to depict our declining state of affairs. Over time, vines, weeds and other plant life will begin to supplant the space taken by the columns, much like humankind has done to nature. However, like the wildlife hiding away in our manmade world, the structures will still exist under the eventual smothering of plants, waiting for their turn in power again, or hopefully, a solution for a balance that will finally end this war.
GUEST ARTIST:RUSSELL WATSON
Watson will be exhibiting a video projection at our opening reception on December 13th at sunset.
Russell Watson is an interdisciplinary visual artist and lecturer in cinema at the UWI Cavehill Campus.
His recent work of combining drawing, photography, multimedia projection and enhanced portraiture has yielded a taxonomy of beings that seem to exist simultaneously in cosmic, atomic, primordial and futuristic space-time. This mashing together of scale and epoch is his way of contemplating temporality and the fragility of ecosystems in the Anthropocene.
