Projects created at Farm Studio and Testimonials

Daphne Corregan – France

I chose Farm Studio rather than a specifically ceramic oriented residency looking for an eventuality to immerse myself in the Rajasthani culture whilst being artistically active at the same time. I’m happy to say that this is exactly what happened. I jumped on the opportunity to work with the local potter family in the neighboring village. We rapidly decided on a determined quantity of clay and workspace amongst the family. I had no preconceived project before coming but quickly decided to work both with the turban and the head rings as representations of the body. The use of local fabrics used for saris and turbans were immediately part of the plan. As well as the desire to somehow honor all the tools I was surrounded with in their shelter, used for everything from studio, garage, bathroom, storage, firing and eventually cooking space. We’d be visited by local people, friends of the family or locals simply curious as to what we were up to. Three of us had decided to work here. The family taught us their ways, we worked side by side, joked, drank, ate and shared as much as possible. I had to adapt to their clay, a mixture of local clay and donkey dung, and once mastered, plowed through my idea of stacking hollow heads the way women stack water pots and just about anything they have to carry on the lovely fabric head rings. I would ideally have liked to see 8 of them but realized the absurdity of the ambition in these circumstances. Four were amply enough to encourage me to continue the project in my own space in Europe with adequate tools. As for the turban and ring, the idea evolved into using them as heavy stones or weights suspended by the same fabric used to make them. The idea they be interpreted as simple beautiful objects, clouds, brains, or the headdress’s they actually are, weighted by the material used, the burnt surfaces left by the straw, charcoal and nutshell firing and the lightness conveyed by their capture in the translucid red cloth amused me and met my expectations, a direction I hope to pursue. I repeated visions of ritual utensils continuously photographed in temples to somehow play hommage to the humble objects of the everyday life here in Rajasthan. I had bought handmade hemp paper on our way to the residency planning on using the studio space on site for watercolors, already the image of red turbans had haunted me but that’s been put aside for my return. The whole experience was rich, enlightening and dense.

Vagaram and Monique, the organizers helped us appreciate the rural lives of the people beginning with the most beautiful sunrises to the equally stunning desert sunsets. Aside from Ramu’s fabulous cooking and Vagaram’s extraordinary breakfasts, we lived and shared practically like everyone else surrounding us. My fellow artists were amazing people and all confirmed artists. Adding an extra ingredient to the magic. This is the uniqueness of Farm Studio.

The HIVE residency – Curated by Shannon Cooney – Germany/Canada

With invited members: Jared Gradinger, Claudia Hill, Samuel Draper, Roberto Martinez, Marina Hulzenga, Clara Birnbaum Pantzerhielm, Shelley Etkin, Monique Romeiko, Navtej Johar, and Simrat Dugal – U.S.A., Germany, UK, Sweden, Spain, Canada, India

Borrowing from Nature a Bee Hive model, wherein an organism with others of likeness live together in a chosen place to thrive. Within the hive there is specialization as each individual has a distinct task/specified role. Respecting that all tasks are valued equally: meaning the hive would not exist without these roles being carried out, they act as a whole or a system or a superorganism. Within this Hive model we spent collectively 5 weeks together with the invitation for Open Source Exchange: to intersect exchanges and interchange our research, resources and practices. The invitees’ work, or practice engages in some or all of the following; expanded consciousness, dance, performance, visual art, bodywork and/or hand’s-on modalities, sense-driven (somatic) practices, and/or work with Nature and Nature-oriented Land-based work. The concept of the Hive is to give the opportunity of Time to expand one’s resources, share in discoveries and generate vibrancy in one’s own work/research/practices and those of each other. The invitees were selected based on their engagement in parallel practices with the understanding that they are often in a production-based milieu where one might normally find they are lacking in Time for true conversations, and artistic inquisitive exchange. The Hive offers an environment of true exchange through a non-time-pressured and non-production atmosphere.

Marcy Chevali – U.S.A.

While in residence at Farm Studio in December of 2019, I created ‘Thin”. Using locally purchased cotton thread, I knit a large shape, approximately five feet across, which, at a point, began to quickly and specifically taper into one and finally zero stitches. When completed, the finally piece was installed in a neighboring field and photographed with mountains and the unique landscape of the area in the background. The shape of the piece is metaphoric and personal and another important aspect of the piece is that the stitch is loose and therefore see-through. Although it changes perspective, everything is visible behind it and the light coming through makes visible variations and imperfections in the stitching.

Valérie Miquel – France

My name is Valérie Miquel. I was a resident at Farm Studio in December 2019. I am a choreographer dancer and coach and went to Farm Studio to work with women for a creative production with them on “My dream is…” My project not being able to take place I changed my mind and started to improvise a solo on the place of the village Andore, which received a great success and was a lot of fun. After that I gave a daily workshop to the kids of a Gypsy camp which was near our residency. I spent such a great time with the kids who most of them did not go to school and the whole families of the camp. Not speaking the same language, we managed to understand each others and at the end I could see how much the kids had improved and learned ways on moving in the space, rhythms, dancing etc. They are for ever in my heart. I gave workshop to women and we loved to exchange our techniques. And finally I recorded with the help of Marcy Chevali and Monique Romeiko many solo improvisations in the nature. I also recorded a lot of images that I will use in my next production CRI that I am working on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI5a7uMnlkU

Max Strong – U.S.A.

My name is Max Strong, I was a resident at Farm Studio during the November 2019 session. I am a Collage Artist. I use assembled materials that I gather from the areas around where I do my work. I let what items I discover dictate what type of work I will produce. I spent most of my days in Rajasthan exploring towns around Andore by rickshaw, bus and by foot. Each evening I would return to work in the studio space with bags full of posters I’d scraped from walls or packaging I’d gathered from markets. My experience at the Farm Residency was productive and inspiring. The residency is truly unique. It provided me with an ideal opportunity to bear down and delve further into my craft. Instagram: maxstrongart

Tito Stanley – India

Title – ‘Memories in Green land’ Medium – Oil on canvas Size -5 x 2.5 ft Year – November 29th 2019 Memories in Green land, this painting is derived from my experience in Farm Studio Residency and the near surrounding spaces which I visited. This work shows that a harmonious green landscape and some sweetest moments in residency period. And it has greatly influence the top views from mountains and hard working farmers in Andore village.

Valérie Jacques-Bélair – Canada

Crossing the desert is a comic book about relationship in between women; the struggles indian women can face, the friendship they share and the secrets they hide from each other. What comes out of my research in Andorre is a lot of very useful informations to write my story : I met with people from different casts so I can get a better idea of how they live, I hung out with women of the villages and learned a lot about natural healing as well. All this will make my story stronger, closer to the reality of the people I am talking about.

Rakesh Lad – India

“SHERO” The status of women in India has been subject to many changes over the span of recorded Indian history. Their position in early society was of very high position in India’s ancient period, especially in the Indo-Aryan speaking regions and their subordination continued to be reified well into India’s early modern period. Practises such as female infanticide, dowry and child marriage have had a long time in India, and have proved difficult to root out, specially in caste society in india. India has always been a traditionally patriarchal society. Deeply ingrained social practices, traditions and customs passed down through generations have created a culture that accepts discrimination against women as a part of life but when it comes to religion we always obey to women gods like Man Durga, Laxmi, Kali etc. As any visual art form, photography exploits vulnerabilities of the human visual perception and can make us experience emotions that move us and compel us to do things that we otherwise would not even think of. After some research and taken interviews of women within society. I created the Series of Digital art photography called “Shero”. It shows that every men inside there is part of women. Here i destroy the beautiful portrait of a man and replaced with women’s portrait. The Kesri represent masculine (male) dominancy and pink represent feminine.

Atsushi Fugunaga – Japan

“Walking with donkey carrying charpoi” https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=_lUzPMPQpFg&feature=emb_logo I stayed near a village called Andore in the state of Rajasthan, India for three weeks. One can encounter a range of creatures in the rich natural environment. The mother tongue of people living in Andore is Marwari. I asked people in Andore to imitate the sounds of different animals and life in the village, and I used their “voices” to create a sound installation that evokes the landscape of the region. By featuring the voices of people rather than actual environmental sounds, the sound installation presents a subjective soundscape of Andore. The soundscape reveals the sense of familiarity the locals have toward the climate and nature at Andore and offers a glimpse of the expressions that have been nurtured in the region and are unique to Marwari. By recording the sounds that the people of Andore hear daily, using their very own language, we learn how they relate to and perceive the environmental sounds in their region. The participants in my production were mainly children from the village. Through this experience, I hope that the sounds of nature that they hear daily in this unique environment will remain with them as memories of their childhood. Date: 30th Wed. October 2019 Art Work: Sound installation by Link Player with portable speakers x6 Language: Marwari / 38 people in Andore for voice recording

#contemporary #shamanism #spiritual #politics # #painting #sculpture #performance
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