Projects created at Farm Studio and Testimonials
Evie Lovett (USA)
I LEAVE THIS
The first thing I noticed in Andore was the piles of trash on the roadsides outside the village. There is no other means of garbage disposal. Andore faces the same problem that exists everywhere in the world: inadequate garbage disposal and recycling. In the US, the garbage truck whisks away our cans of trash and recycling every week. It becomes instantly invisible. In Andore, the plastic waste is there, by the side of the road, forever. Despite our patting ourselves on the back in the US for recycling, only 5% of plastic waste is recycled. 85% ends up in landfills. 10% is burned.
It’s an invisible shitshow in the US. It’s a highly visible shitshow in India.
During my time in Andore, I made art with every piece of plastic trash I generated, using the cyanotype process: a 180-year-old photographic process in which material coated with non-toxic light-sensitive chemistry is exposed to the sun’s light and developed in water, yielding a range of white to deep blue where UV rays trigger a chemical reaction. It was a way of turning to face, through art-making, the ugliness of society’s consumption and inability or lack of interest to address the problem of the waste we produce.
In the cyanotypes I make there is a dissonance between the formal equilibrium, even beauty, of the images, and the unnerving fact that it’s waste that created that beauty.
Pedro Gomes (United States)
Upon arriving at Farm Studio, I was hit by a powerful wave of excitement as a result of the suddenly sharper realization that I was about to spend one month in a remote village in northern India with a couple of strangers and a few blank notebooks. I had never participated in an art residency nor had I been to Asia before. I worried so many firsts would leave me unfocused and scattered, so I drew out a gameplan for my weeks in the studios.
As the days rolled on, I understood that such a rigid approach didn’t make sense for what I was trying to achieve during my residency. I wanted to form a relationship with this novel environment and let it affect my thoughts and ideas. With that in mind, I made an effort to abandon the worry of not having enough of a creative output and gave myself permission to simply enjoy being in a remote village in India — trusting the drawings would pour out of me later.
This immersion in a foreign environment, coupled with the freedom to spend my days as I pleased, shielded from distractions, allowed for an unrestrained and abundant production of work. The contact that Farm Studio promoted between resident artists and the community of the nearby village of Andore was, for me, the most special aspect of the residency. I feel immeasurably lucky to have been welcomed into their homes and invited to partake in their traditions and rituals. The kindness I witnessed from these locals was very moving and a beautiful memory I will carry for the rest of my life.
Chelsea Young (South Africa)
My trip to India and more specifically, the considered time spent in the surrounds of Andore Village was completely life changing. Not only was the everyday life at Farm Studio the most inspiring, creative time I have ever spent for myself; but there was one moment in particular that has shifted who I am not only as a creative, but as a human and this moment I will hold forever.
The moment I mention, in retrospect, was my project for the residency and materialised in a spontaneous way. The three of us went on our daily afternoon walk, at the base of the mountain, equipped with paper and ground turmeric. We stopped at a Gypsy family of many children with their single father. With both parties being sensitive to engage with each other, I rested into the flow of most creative projects and began to place the paper on the floor, mix the turmeric with water and create an abstract mess.
Free mark making and ‘playing’ created a safe space for the children to engage – becoming self aware and reigniting a childlike nature that due to their extreme existence, was not obvious. As the afternoon progressed, with almost everyone painting with this glowing yellow spice, I was blown away at the vulnerability of the children and their willingness to move and express themselves with textiles that I had created. This became a form of art therapy for both myself and the children – connecting through art in a universal way – without expectation – without judgement – just kindness.
Paris Sergiou (Cyprus )
It was my first visit to the Far East. My accustomed routine experience is the Mediterranean sensation. Finding my self in India for a month proved to be a constant realisation of a revealing opening to alternatives in all aspects of life. Being a visual artist, at arrival I decided to start to see things in black and white and then gradually surprise my self with Rajasthan’s aesthetics. I believe every single person on earth will had received what I had encountered differently depending on maturity of soul. India is a great nation and now I am confident to say this! Every country is determined by its people and the grandeur of India is defined by the Indian culture and its individuals. The fine unique qualities of the inhabitants of India are neatly embedded within their gene pool structure. Good manners, very strong messages in their religious world and a practical wisdom in their daily routine, gives a generalised but also individually very specific characteristics that render the country to a paradise of essential behaviour…to oneself but also to each other. The ‘complex’ order that I felt contradicted the existence of chaos and that was the moment that I was ready to start seeing in colour and to paint.
I want to express my gratitude to the team behind Farm studio.