Help support two projects by members of Alice Yard's network

Promotional trailer for Kingston Shottas

Two current projects by members of Alice Yard’s network are raising financial support via the crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

Kingston Shottas, directed by Mariel Brown, is a documentary film in progress. “At a time when contemporary art from the Caribbean is catching fire internationally,” Brown writes, “Kingston Shottas follows Jamaican artists Marvin Bartley, Marlon James and Ebony G. Patterson as they take on the controversial issues of race, class, slavery and homosexuality; making photography-based work that captures, with an arresting honesty, the challenges and contradictions of being Jamaican in the 21st century, and simultaneously navigating the vicissitudes of rising through the ranks of the international art world.” The film is inspired in part by Shot in Kingston, an exhibition of photo-based work by younger Jamaican artists, curated by Christopher Cozier as part of Alice Yard’s 4x4 programme in 2010.

Find out more about the film and how you can lend your support here.

Artists Alicia Milne and Luis Vasquez La Roche, aka Pinky & Emigrante, have been selected to participate in a two-month residency at OAZO AIR in Amsterdam in July and August 2013. Their Indiegogo campaign will help cover travel, living, and materials costs for this residency. Find out more here.

Both crowdfunding campaigns offer special perks for donors.

Rodell Warner: Year of the Snake Eating Itself

Mohammeds

An exhibition and talk by artist in residence Sandra Brewster

Thursday 4 April, 2013, 7 to 10 pm, at Alice Yard

Sandra Brewster has been artist in residence at Alice Yard during February and March 2013. While in Port of Spain, she has created a new body of work, Mohammeds, which has evolved from her ongoing Smiths series. On Thursday 4 April, to mark the end of her residency, Brewster will show this new work at Alice Yard, and give a short artist’s talk. The exhibition will be open to the public from 7 to 10 pm on 4 April, and from 6 to 9 pm on 5 April.

Brewster writes:

“I’ve enjoyed playing in the Yard this last couple of months, travelling, making friends, and learning about Trinidad. Some of the results of this play will be installed throughout the space, complemented by a talk on how my work has started to travel in other directions at Alice Yard.

“Among the series I’ve worked on, the Smiths have been a recurring theme. The name Smith, a large section of a North American telephone directory, conjures up ideas of sameness and commonality and invisibility, as there are so many. Offering an element of humour, I use the name to mock the notion of a monolithic Black community — of course not all Smiths are related, or look or act the same. The Smiths are afro-headed characters that I present as paintings on slabs of wood, their bodies clothed in solid colour and their faces replaced with the Smith section of the phone directory. I continue to use them in various visual narratives and pieces that offer a questioning around concerns of identity and representation.

“Now the Smiths from Toronto have turned into Trinidadian Mohammeds. I’ve been playing with the components of the form, using them in new narratives, and engaging environments and people with 3D interpretations. I regard this experience, very much inspired by this place, as another new beginning to my practice.”


About the artist:

Sandra Brewster is a Canadian artist of Caribbean ancestry. She is a recipient of numerous grants to develop projects. Her work has been published in several journals and magazines: Of Note, The Walrus, Small Axe, Chimurenga, MIX, and NKA, among others. Recent exhibitions include 28 Days, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto; Serious Play, SPACE, London, UK; (Re) Visions, The Print Studio, Hamilton, Ontario; Listen Installation, Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario; Fortune Tellers, Five Myles Gallery, New York; and Fleeting Face, A Space Gallery, Toronto. Her practice also includes work as an arts educator/community arts facilitator, and she has coordinated numerous exhibitions involving Toronto artists.

This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council

Verse to Converse

Friday / March 15 / 2013 / 7pm / Alice Yard

Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta

Hosted by Artist in Residence Sandra Brewster, a reading and discussion with Sri Lankan poet Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta, playing on the links between the Arts and History, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Krisantha, who is visiting from Sri Lanka, has read in Colombo, Beijing, New York, San Francisco, London, and Toronto. He will read from his latest work, Transfixion in Twilight. He is presently compiling: A Very Personal English History of the World. His books of poetry include: Cheqpoint in Heaven (2005), Aay Wha’ Kinda Indian Arr U? (1997), The 52nd State of Amnesia (1992), The Only Minority is the Bourgeoisie (1985), and Domestic Bliss (1981).

Sandra Brewster, artist in residence

1 February to 31 March, 2013
 

Sandra Brewster, Alice Yard's current artist in residence, is a multi-media artist creating work (drawings, paintings, video and mixed media) that engages issues of race, identity, representation, and memory. Her current focus is African-Canadians born in North America and those who arrived in North America from the Caribbean during the 1960s and 70s. At times, she references old photographs and recreates elements using painting, drawing, and gel transfers, juxtaposing imagery to provide a dialogue through contrasts or likenesses. In this work she visually represents a time or a memory and provides a platform to tell stories of “back home”. In other pieces Brewster presents portraits of individuals that challenge stereotypes and perceptions. Her ongoing series Smiths questions prevalent assertions about the existence of a monolithic Black Community.

Untitled (Smiths), mixed media on wood, 48x60 in., 2011

Brewster is a recipient of numerous grants to develop projects. Her work has been published in several journals and magazines: Of Note, The Walrus, Small Axe, Chimurenga, MIX, and NKA, among others. Recent exhibitions include 28 Days, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto; Serious Play, SPACE, London, UK; (Re) Visions, The Print Studio, Hamilton, Ontario; Listen Installation, Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario; Fortune Tellers, Five Myles Gallery, New York; and Fleeting Face, A Space Gallery, Toronto. Her practice also includes work as an arts educator/community arts facilitator, and she has coordinated numerous exhibitions involving Toronto artists.

See a conversation by Sally Frater on Brewster's work here.

This residency is supported by the Ontario Arts Council