Category: Artist Residency

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Artist Residency Update

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“Between the River and Lagoon,” our artist residency initiative devoted several weeks during January, 2014 in rural Fort Pierce, Florida to provide the necessary time to develop working sketches, photograph historical locations, access county records, talk to local historians. Some of the residency production became part of a comprehensive exhibition in drawing, photography, and video at FIU Frost Art Museum. Our Kickstarter project allowed for the residency’s lodging and per diem during the stay in Fort Pierce.

Onajide Shabaka developed two different, but related performative works. Each work included walking, the artist’s primary performative action out of which other notions flow, “Uncovering Places of Memory: The Body of Bill ‘Blackjack’ Horton,” and “Shifting of the Landscape Black.” Both projects documented presence through time by discretely walking several blocks in a neighborhood, and several out of town locations.

Final Report Documentation: “Between the River and Lagoon” (2MB) [link temporarily disabled]

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Artist-in-Residence Initiative

The Artlab33 Artist-in-Residence Initiative is designed to sustain a critical discourse on contemporary art, society, and the natural environment in south Florida. Organic and malleable by design, the residency initiative offers a platform for visual and interdisciplinary art practice to take risks, make discoveries, and challenge traditional systems of thought, production, and being.

Artlab33 Artist-in-Residence Initiative is also an opportunity to work in non-traditional studio in the natural environment, giving the time, solitude, and focus often unavailable to many working artists. This also allows an artist access to an outdoor workspace, and an inspirational setting, free from the expectations of commercial and academic demands, while also having access to local indoor space to focus on research, writing, and production, interaction with the local community.

UPDATE: JUNE 2014

INITIAL PROJECT

“Walking The River Making Art” (previously postponed due to infrastructure damage)

Still closed for concrete footbridge repair. Sad. #florida #betweenriverlagoon #artresidency

The entrance is still closed due to the footbridge needing replacement. The concrete and rebar structure is crumbling. Access to Jack Island is only available by water. This location, however, has provided the site for a number of exploratory visits, and a number of completed art works. The image below, taken in a location several kilometers north of Jack Island, shows the richness and health of the Indian River Lagoon as many ospreys were out catching mullet as they jumped out of the water.

Osprey waiting for the evil human to depart so it can eat its mullet. #betweenriverlagoon #artresidency #intercoastalwaterway

FEC railroad in a diorama of downtown Ft. Pierce, FL. at St. Lucie County Historical Museum. #betweenriverlagoon #artresidency

Fort Pierce, Florida as the site of this residency has a vibrant historical museum. Above is a diorama of downtown Fort Pierce as viewed along the FEC rail lines about 1930.

This house has many stories to tell going back to 1940s. #betweenriverlagoon #artresidency

My transcription of a family letter, dated: 9-28-52. #artandtext

The above house had been the storehouse of many documents and photographs which gave this area its significance as a residency location. The above letter from 1952 has been rewritten with the attempt to copy stylistically certain features of the original. The text as well was excerpted, and changed, to fit the needs of this project. The final project will reflect the original, both photos and letters, but will change into fiction as artistic license is used extensively.

Working on a drawing that will be glazed with encaustic. #betweenriverlagoon #artresidency #drawing

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Short Term Art & Research Residency on the St. Lucie River and Lagoon (FL).

“Between the River and Lagoon” is an art residency initiative devoting several weeks over a two month period in rural Fort Pierce, Florida to build a comprehensive exhibition in drawing, photography, sculpture and video.

 

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