Joint effort to expose works of local artists

The Fresh Milk Art Platform, with support from the Cultural Industries Development Fund of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), has launched three digital public arts projects featuring works by three local artists. The creations of Joshua Clarke, Mohita Shenoy and Chris Welch are now exhibited on the Fresh Milk ArtBoard, a mural at St. George Primary School and a bus shelter outside he St George Primary respectively.

Fresh Milk and the NCF are seeking to empower creatives and stimulate the creative economy in the island, especially during the very challenging COVID-19 period, and are thrilled to have engaged with a range of artists at different stages of their careers and working across a variety of media including illustration, graphic design, photography and artificial intelligence to name a few.

Speaking on his piece Clarke said: “… The two works [I incorporated] are the Nelson’s History piece that tracks his personal story from young sailor to figure of heroism and horror in duality in the English Caribbean, and the Statue Fallen piece that draws on space opera & science fiction imagery to see the scar of Nelson’s idolatry rent asunder from the figure representing the island of Barbados.

My hope [is that the piece] arrests the viewer as something simultaneously otherworldly but relentlessly Caribbean, pulling the dynamic colour from the painting and the complex linework from the illustrative piece for a pop poster mashup that takes my two artistic directions and combines them in a way that can be communicated on a large scale.”

Of her piece Shenoy explained: “…Since lions are the mascots of St. George Primary school, I had the idea that the lions being portrayed are a sort of symbol, a spirit of the school that goes wherever the students go in life. The boy is shown to be reading (academics).

The lion alongside him patiently allows him to lean against him, supporting him in his studies. The girl in the middle is playing soccer (sports), the lion cub at her side runs with her, again a symbol of moral support.

The girl on the right is dancing (the arts). The lioness accompanying her winds around her, as if it wants to dance in support too.”

Welch noted: “AI Chattel is a model that dreams of Bajan architecture, connecting the past, present and future of these unique structures. AI Chattel bridges the gaps between art, technology, culture and architecture.

Machine Learning (ML) is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience  … I used an image dataset of 2500 chattel house images from around the island to train a Style GAN 2 (Generative Adversarial Network) model.

The objective of this project is to show an important and yet mostly forgotten characteristic about architecture; architecture is alive, lives among us and is capable of stimulating our senses.” There is also a QR code embedded in Chris’ work on the bus shelter, and the public is invited to scan it to learn more and to see the video component of his AI Chattel series. For more information on Fresh Milk and its programming, email freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com or visit the website at freshmilkbarbados.com. (PR)