tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9236133175772232482024-03-12T17:32:31.875-07:00Refugio AmazonasA Trelex Residency in PeruNina Rodinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07762735401279716079noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-44439160938295531712019-09-27T09:32:00.000-07:002019-09-27T09:32:58.641-07:00From Eva Lis<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">2 - 23 Dec 2017</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Coming from London it took me a while to adjust to the new environment and for the first few days I experienced those two worlds overlapping: dry banana leaves seemed like discarded car tyres but when placed in the jungle they became more like fish and like snakes. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everything was “like” something else, something that I knew already. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my work often I investigate violence behind the virtue.
I am interested in socio-political and moral structures that are abusive but are presented as noble.
Being in the jungle I started to pay attention how those mechanisms are applied in nature.
On my first trip into the jungle I was introduced to the strangler fig - a plant that kill trees and takes their shape and place.
It starts growing from a small seed in a canopy several meters above the ground deposited there by a bird or animal, and it grows its roots down to the ground, in a seemingly delicate and gentle manner around the tree. It’s only when it reaches the forest floor that the strangler fig swells to engulf its host.
Eventually it will kill the host tree and oftentimes hide the evidence by growing inward to fill in the gap left behind by dead and decomposed host. Its hollow inside may become a home for bats and a few creepy crawlies. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Tambopata rainforest there is astonishing number of insects, lizards, birds and animals that mimic something else in order to hide or attack. Some species are polymorphic - meaning the same species will come in a variety of different camouflage variations. It helps prevent predators from learning the patterns of particular camouflage. There are a different layers of disguise. For example Blue Morpho Butterfly has brown exterior wings that look like dry leaves, but when they open their wings, you’ll see spectacular, bright blue coloring. But its beauty is not to attract attention. It is a warning sign.
Many species retain distasteful or poisonous chemicals acquired from their host plants make their own defences like paralyzing alkaloids, cardiac glycosides and histamines. Larvae usually acquire these chemicals, and may retain them in the adult stage. But adults can acquire them, too, by regurgitating decomposing plants containing the compounds and sucking up the fluid.
Camouflage is not only visual; heat, sound, magnetism and even smell can be used to target a pray and may be intentionally concealed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Resident biologists at Refugio Amazonas are using a light bulb to mimic a moonlight to attract and capture months for studies. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The 'Theatre of Death' light trap</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The nature is endlessly fascinating but I was there as an artist not a biologist so I wanted to find an
artist’s way to apprehend the jungle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although I was in Peru for the first time I had a feeling like I was experiencing it second hand. I saw it all on TV, I read about it in some books. I could name the shapes that I saw: a palm tree, a spider, a snake, an eagle, a banana, a monkey etc…I knew a function and properties of many of those things. I read about it. I had too much information in my head. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could not see it for what it really was: a miracle. How could I experience it without all those pre-installed data?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I decided to do what babies do: explore it by mouth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I imagined myself as an alien that has no concept of what is supposed to do with the encountered objects. I was licking plants and people and I recorded sensation that it provided but again I could only describe it by comparison to something familiar and from human perspective. The taste of frog was like slightly salted cucumber and bird was a warm, dry, old wool or flavourless sugar candy. Everything was “like” something else.
At first I wanted to create a sound installation with description of the taste of the rainforest but I started to doubt the point of it since that would bring me back to the same problem that I was trying to escape. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A problem of the language itself.
In his book "Violence" Slavoj Zizek explains the problem of verbal communication: "Language simplifies the designated thing, reducing it to a single feature. It dismembers the thing, destroying its organic unity, treating its parts and properties as autonomous. It inserts the thing into a field of meaning which is ultimately external to it. When we name gold "gold" we violently extract a metal from its natural texture, investing into it our dreams of wealth, power and so on, which have nothing to do with immediate reality of gold". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then we have a hierarchy of the language. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To be part of contemporary art scene artist are expected to be able to interpret their work from visual to verbal and the verbal really means English. That kind of set up allows participation in contemporary art for a certain group only and is creating a cultural class systems. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Language was always used as a tool of control and indoctrination as much as communication. Colonizers typically have imposed their language on the people they colonized, forbidding natives to speak their mother tongues. Such efforts seek the suppression and annihilation of the different ways of thinking and expression but are presented as sophistication and education. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The use of language signals certain social status and we judge accordingly.
As is well known, the historical narrative is usually presented from the point of view of the conqueror.
I was more interested in non-verbal, non-linear communication.
I was introduced to the artworks of the Shepibo Indians, a large tribe of the Peruvian Amazon.
Intricate linear geometric and symmetrical textiles and embroidery, all crafted by women, contain recursive and self-reflective motifs act as visual music maps – scores notating the chants and songs (Icaros) associated with Ayahasca healing ceremonies.
The Shipibo can listen to a song or chant by looking at the designs – and inversely, paint a pattern by listening to a song or music.
Indigenous mythic histories are often non-linear. They’re not necessarily chronological. They may not be concerned so much with telling exactly what happened but with the energy it conveys. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGqvtzOfi9O_RgfNs7dwwYhBPVtQg1KHLU8jXdUawbOhKZYJDYEbi8IZxOViVjzU3TIlLJ1v310_WsCiuoTvgKVLBLNbMNvcaIfmkjeLIoJYgGixcwaTcczdhiexM3g3VDu8eoIoebJgpw/s1600/Screenshot+2019-09-27+at+16.49.29.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="800" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGqvtzOfi9O_RgfNs7dwwYhBPVtQg1KHLU8jXdUawbOhKZYJDYEbi8IZxOViVjzU3TIlLJ1v310_WsCiuoTvgKVLBLNbMNvcaIfmkjeLIoJYgGixcwaTcczdhiexM3g3VDu8eoIoebJgpw/s320/Screenshot+2019-09-27+at+16.49.29.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tapestry by Shepibo tribe of Peruvian Amazon</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A shaman is an interpreter between two worlds. I started to think of the language as a map that is a construct, a kind of mathematics or technology.
I was wondering if I can make a map of emotion. I tried to record different feelings by crunching a piece paper with my hands covered in pigment. But those recorded marks on paper were actually quite useless: they could not re-create the emotion felt just by following the creases on paper.
To quote after Eric Temple Bell: "the map is not the thing mapped".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The concept of art as a representation and was skilfully illustrated by the Belgian surrealistartist René Magritte in a number of paintings including a famous work entitled The Treachery of Images, which consists of a drawing of a pipe with the caption, Ceci n'est pas une pipe("This is not a pipe").
A more extreme literary example, the fictional diary of Tristram Shandy is so detailed that it takes the author one year to set down the events of a single day – because the map (diary) is more detailed than the territory (life), yet must fit into the territory (diary written in the course of his life), it can never be finished. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I started to observe certain marks made by insects, patterns in plants and animals and think of it as a language or a map. Maybe other animals or people can sing, feel or understand it? With our estimated 7000 different languages we haven’t translated a single spoken language of nature. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Algorithms and hidden language of nature are omnipresent and yet we dismiss it focusing on our very specific human-centric needs.
I felt very disconnected from the world, I saw it as an image, a project. I wanted to feel it, connect to it, but I felt numb, detached. I decided to work with what was available to me to continue an idea of anti-gravity that I stared a year ago. I used a spider web to suspend some objects in the air but I only scared a few local people that took with for a frolic of the spirits. Then I found a small broken tree and used lianas that I wanted to believe were ayahuasca, to make it looks like the tree levitates, goes to heaven (I was thinking something along the lines of merging Amazonian shamanism and imposed Catholic believes (the ascension of Jesus and the spirits of plants).
After I finished my installation I went back to the hotel to get my camera but I couldn’t find my way back to the ascending tree again. Maybe it is still there stuck in-between two worlds, maybe it fell back to the ground and was absorbed by the earthor maybe it went to heaven. I will never know. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The weather changed and most of the time it was raining now. I was observing tourists coming and going and their interactions with the local people and tourists guides. They wanted to know about their families, where did they travel, where do they live and how, if they know any shamans that would perform any rituals for them (</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>ayahuasca</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">being most popular). I went back to my chosen subjects of morality and culture as a camouflage for exploitation. I thought that you would not ask a tourist guide at the British Museum about his or her schooling or parents in the same way.
Cheap flights and internet access opened an access to the information and travelling for people that would not have this opportunity before. Within that, like with limited edition prints or hand made objects the “authentic”, limited edition tourist experience became fetishized and ironically mass sold (Airbnb, volunteering, Ayahuasca ceremonies etc). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">John Ralston Saul wrote in </span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Voltaire’s Bastards: the Dictatorship in the West: "</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tourism has become perhaps the most popular means for individuals to give themselves the sensation that they stepped outside the norm while continuing to move within it".
The tourist psychology bleeds into our daily life too:we are encouraged to look but not to see, travel without discovery, think outside the box but within business context, etc. The access to travelling and information is of course regulated one way traffic:
European or North American citizen is allowed and encouraged to consume the products and culture of the world but we don’t allow the same participation in exchange. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I spoke about this problem in two of my projects: </span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.evalis.uk/pages/daytrippers.html" target="_blank">Day Trippers</a> </i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.evalis.uk/pages/madeinchina.html" target="_blank">Made in China</a> </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mass media created illusion of freedom and try to convert everything: spirituality, private life, religious ceremony into accessible, entertainment business. Looking for meaning, connection and nature became the biggest tourists’ attractions. We are moving from material toward cultural neo-colonialism.
Slavoj Zizek calls it Capitalism with a Smiley Face. For those who practise it, it means power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress. In the days of old-fashioned colonialism, the imperial power had at least to explain and justify at home the actions it was taking abroad. In the colony those who served the ruling imperial power could at least look to its protection against any violent move by their opponents. With neo-colonialism neither is the case. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My time in Tambopata was running towards the end. I was disappointed with myself that I didn’t produce any tangible work which I could claim as final result of my residency, I didn’t bring back any cultural trophy from my exotic trip to the jungle.
Whatever I tried to do lead me to a dead end. Maybe because I was coming from a position of a cultural explorer, an observer, an academic voyeur. Like any other tourist I didn’t create or discover but I used, explained, processed already processed, tamed and caged experience of the jungle.
Only while writing this report I realised that this is my most authentic experience of artist-tourist coming back from my art residency with a maze of dead end stores, half-thoughts and unfinished objects, no answers and no successes, images and text (mine and other’s), all weaved together like Shepibo art that has no perspectives, beginnings or ends. The most authentic experience is experience of my life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wanted to use this opportunity to thank Nina Rodin for creating this phenomenal residency. It had a massive influence on my life. I also wanted to thank everybody that I met in Tambopata Rainforest Expedition. Special thanks to Juan Carlos who took me on a boat trip to feed piranhas, Lucila that gave me her shoes when mine got lost and I was walking jungle barefoot, Ines Duran Perdomo who took me home for Christmas, and of course Juan Diego Shoobridge that was such an amazing company, made us laugh, told us all about harpy eagles, sloths, plants, wild cats and of course his favourite tiger moths.
THANK YOU EVERYBODY. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-24417250316505966962017-11-30T10:15:00.000-08:002018-01-09T04:41:45.813-08:00From Ayse Balko<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">04 - 30 Nov 2017</span></h4>
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Trelex Amazon Residency Reflections..<br />
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I could write two posts to describe the amazing space that Trelex Amazon and Rainforest Expeditions provided for us, one for Refugio and one for TRC (Tambopata Research Centre.) The lodges are incredible. Being in a jungle and far away from the world is an exhilarating experience. Having a whole month in the rainforest and in this environment allowed me to relax and absorb the space, the people, the jungle and myself. The art of exploration could not get any more comfortable and luxurious.Was I spoiled? Yes, very much so and I love the memory that stays with me.<br />
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I developed two major bodies of work during my residency in the Amazon at the Rainforest Expedition Lodges. One of them is a photography series and the other one is experimental electronic soundscapes.<br />
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Experimental Soundscapes: <a href="https://soundcloud.com/ratonthetree" target="_blank">Rat on the Tree</a>; A Flat Death<br />
Photography Gallery Spaces Once Hold Memories: <a href="https://balkostudio.pixieset.com/trelexamazon-tambopata/" target="_blank">Trelex Amazon - Tambopata</a><br />
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Displacement - Memory - Re-designing Identity<br />
My Inspiration: I explore identity and memory.<br />
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A month in the lodges allowed me to absorb and reflect. Allowing the materials to form their identity in my perception. Early in the morning waking up with a thunderstorm, macaw calls and the sound of howling monkeys. Watching Hummingbirds, listening to frogs, walking through the trails, laughing with spider monkeys, amazed by Peccaries, being thrilled by the sounds coming from the deep darkness at night became part of the daily living.<br />
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The cohesion/focus for the project came from the ordinary pieces laying on the ground level of the forest. The shapes formed by leaves, barks became the abstract sculptures. They were the invisible force drawing me to a clarity. Each piece had its own lifespan. The displacement of a seed holds the hopes of a tree for a new start, a continuation of its memories. A leaf has the same memory as the bark it was once connected to. The smell of caramelised fresh fruits, some dried, nutritious, poisonous textures of the ground arises. This is the story of the Amazonian Basin.<br />
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A bark fallen from the hight of a palm tree holds the same memory as the palm tree. It remembers a spider monkey passing by and the heavy storms of last month.<br />
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During my walks around the trails, I started to record sounds and collect pieces from the ground. By bringing them into my space, I re-define the forms. Bark used to support a fruits, seeds, leaves became the symbol of my exploration of identity. A new life form was about to wake up through the act of displacement. My space was re-defining the form.<br />
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The new life is a concept and it only exists in the conceptual world.<br />
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Each object I picked up has a relationship with me and my walk on the day we met in the jungle. A collection of memories, piling up objects until the light in my heart is ready to release what it holds.<br />
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During the residency, I learned to confront my anomalies. My loss of memory, my anxieties are part of my work. The relationship formed between me and some of the people I met during my residency enabled me to remodel my work. I ferret out the core themes of my artistic practice through immersed conversations with some of the guides, artists, biologists, neurologists, doctors and many more friends at the lodges. I would like to thank them for the invaluable insight which they have generously granted me.<br />
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What happens to the space held by a memory after it is removed, displaced or forgotten?<br />
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<a href="http://aysebalko.blogspot.pe/">aysebalko.blogspot.pe</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-16808837111032375012017-11-05T10:45:00.001-08:002017-11-15T07:28:28.420-08:00Sketchbook pages by Abi Box<h4>
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Sketchbook pages by one of our Trelex Amazonas residents, Abi Box, made during her time in the Peruvian Rainforest. <br />
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<a href="https://issuu.com/abibox/docs/sketchbook_i" target="_blank">Sketchbook 1</a> / <a href="https://issuu.com/abibox/docs/sketchbook_ii" target="_blank">Sketchbook 2</a> / <a href="https://issuu.com/abibox/docs/sketchbook_iii" target="_blank">Sketchbook 3</a></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-50207692984842033122017-11-01T03:49:00.000-07:002018-06-18T03:50:40.106-07:00From Miriam Sedaca<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">1 Nov - 1 Dec 2017</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">Finding a way to express my experience of spending a month in the Amazon rainforest, either in words or through my work, has been a difficult task. The distance between the jungle and the home to which I returned felt like a vast gulf over which I had to leap in order to relay my experience in a meaningful way. So I brought the role of transmitting that experience back to my body and its senses – the vessel which crossed from there to here, an archive in which the sounds and smells of the rainforest still echo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">I bring myself back to the feeling of humidity condensing on my skin, of the pressure in the air before thunder and rain rolled through the forest. I remember the noise, constant yet always changing, of the multitude of insects, birds, frogs, monkeys and other creatures which surrounded me, many of which I began to recognise by ear without ever seeing. My eyes recall the sensation of adjusting to the twilight as I walked below the forest canopy. Of suddenly seeing a point of light out of the corner of my eye and realising that a firefly had landed in my hair and was helping to light my way through the dusk. The sweet and heavy smells of flowers, earth, and rotting fruit still seem to linger in my nostrils. The textures of bark, root, fungus and leaves still hold a dialogue with my fingertips. And through all of my senses, a feeling of life intensified, of everything alive and everything vibrating, and me vibrating with it, joining in the frequency of everything around me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">It was around these sensory experiences that I constructed my work while at the residency and after my return. However I also found myself compelled to consider the gap between my experience in the Amazon, and specifically in the Madre de Dios region, and the lives of its inhabitants. Before arriving in Puerto Maldonado, when I flying over the forest, I saw large patches of empty exposed brown cut into the green below. I had heard about the illegal gold mining in the area which was destroying habitats, wildlife and local communities, and releasing mercury into the rivers, but seeing these swathes cut out of the rainforest brought the reality to me with a jolt. While staying in the beautiful jungle lodges it could be easy to forget this destruction and threat, which seemed a world away but was in fact happening at an alarmingly close proximity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">Reading Astrida Neimanis’ essay “Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water” gave me a key to considering these disparities in relation to the all-encompassing unity of liquid. The unifying pervasiveness of water became the theme which preoccupied my work in the residency, and through which I sought to reconcile the apparent distance and actual proximity of the destruction and pollution in the area. It flows through the rivers and streams which I passed every day, rises with rainforest’s humidity, and moves through the internal channels of animals and plants. It is ever-present as the life source of the Amazon’s millions of species of animals and plants, and also as an archive which carries toxic pollutants into and through all of those species. Through the mercury which is released into the rivers as a waste product of the mining process, the waterways which run through the forest become channels of pollution as well as sources of life. If we consider ourselves as bodies of water, made up of two thirds liquid, we cannot help but feel that the boundaries between ourselves and others are less absolute, more fluid. Water, like the body, is an archive and communicator. As it flows in and out of ourselves and others, it dissolves the boundaries between us, carrying both sustenance and toxicity through and between us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">My work from the residency, “Water’s Breath”, (a performance combining movement, film, and spoken word) was performed at the Opera House in Jersey in January 2018 and at Bow Arts in London in February 2018 as part of their Art for the Environment programme. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">www.miriamsedacca.comhe </span></div>
Rebecca Molloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933032958387055932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-79885887552751306062017-03-31T07:18:00.000-07:002017-08-10T07:43:41.899-07:00From Melanie Ward<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">02 Feb - 31 Mar 2017</span></h4>
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And when I wake in the middle of the night I see small lights, they flicker and come and go. Or they’re larger and they linger like that of a fairy, floating, gliding through the air. Or they creep and stalk something, then fade as though they were never there. They could be fireflies, or the eyes of a cat, or a man with a torchlight. The jungle is a magical place, but it can play tricks with your mind. It is hard to see what is real in the darkness.<br />
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Morning brings about a different world when the sun rises and the jungle awakens. The low rumbling, alike to a lions roar, echoes through the trees as the Howler monkeys wake and compete with the sounds of the Brown Titi monkeys who call back and forth between the males and females. If you’re lucky and quiet you may even catch a glimpse of them outside your room, which has no windows and no ceiling, only a high shared roof between the rooms. This is freedom. This is getting back to nature.<br />
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From the tower you can observe the parrots and macaws flying overhead at a height above the canopy. You can look down on the monkeys playing below, away from the bullet ants and wandering spiders, photographing the sunrises and sunsets. Everyday brings a new creature, even if they’re a different beetle, another bird, the novelty is refreshing and inspiring. Trees are abundant and everywhere, fighting for survival. Some fall down, whilst others grow and replace them. Brazil nut trees, Ceiba trees, strangler figs, all merge with vines, orchids and medicinal plants; the list is endless.<br />
Daily walks to spot the harpy eagle or boat rides to visit lakes give sightings of piranhas and giant otters, or the clay licks where the parrots and macaws noisily gather en mass, but nothing can prepare you for the rare sighting of a jaguar as it disappears along the riverbank into the undergrowth.<br />
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One week the river is fast flowing and full of debris, the white caimans are rarely seen at this time, unlike the mosquitoes who will always find me no matter where I am. I feel safe confined within my mosquito net at night. The creepy crawlies can’t reach me here.<br />
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It is wet season and some days are just filled with rain. There is a calm and beauty to the sound. Regrowth and regeneration will follow. The present is forever changing.<br />
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<a href="http://www.melanie-ward.co.uk/">melanie-ward.co.uk</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-32261961179363065022017-03-31T05:51:00.001-07:002022-02-03T08:57:47.256-08:00From Rebecca Molloy<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">01 Mar - 31 Mar 2017</span></h4>
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Image: Video still: ‘Where there are Females there are Flowers” 2017</div>
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Text: Where there are Females there are Flowers<br />
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Swinging in a hammock in the Amazon Rainforest, within a lacquered wooden lodge, surrounded by mosquitoes, thick swelling heat and lush vegetation... I still have access to the internet. I am inside and outside of nature all at once.</div>
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Our devices are absurd objects that have become a part of us, we keep them close to our bodies and yet they encourage us to view ourselves from an external perspective. Perhaps we are more aware of being surveyed than we are of the feelings of our own bodies.</div>
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Everything in nature develops gradually, step by step and organically. Tarmac, television screens, office cubicles and glazed doughnuts are the materials of our time and we are growing with them:</div>
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Once upon a time there were bodies that worshipped plants. These plants provided these bodies with sustenance, minerals, nutrients and life. These plants were sacred, they were nurturing, healing, powerful and plentiful. But now instead of growing and anchoring themselves into the ground, these plants are potted and placed next to television screens or on top of refrigerators. They are exotic and homely all at once.</div>
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When we put our hands in soil, dopamine is released in the brain. This is so that when we need to go out and gather food, we feel good about the action, ensuring that we will survive another day in the wilds of the world. The same release of chemicals happens when we receive likes on Instagram.</div>
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Once upon a time there were bodies that came from Mars and bodies that came from Venus. At times these bodies were unified, seamlessly harmonious and synchronised, but for the most part they were divided by their physical attributes and chemical makeup. It was hard to know whether these bodies behaved differently to each other because they were conditioned to, because they wanted to or because they had to. </div>
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You will never see yourself fully in three dimensions. Only others will. You will only ever know yourself as an image, through the screens, mirrors and reflections of the world. Perhaps it is more important to feel and be in your body than it is to think about it. </div>
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Once upon a time in the future there will be bodies that are able to suck up heat from the tarmac of the ground and modern materials will move through the layers of the skin to give them pleasure and strength. These bodies will spend time worshiping the digital world as if it were the sun and bearer of life. This world is the wildest of them all, it has the greatest calm and the greatest power as for the first time ever bodies are not separated by their physical constraints, instead they merge with each other, themselves and technology freely. </div>
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In this world there is no gratification in having too much. Be it objects or images there is potency in everything. In this world images are protected and sacred, images are made with quietness, dignity and respect. </div>
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Once upon a time in the future there will be bodies that sweep up the garden of the jungle in order to make way for the worship of the screen.</div>
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Everything in nature develops gradually, step by step and organically. Tarmac, television screens, office cubicles and glazed doughnuts are the materials of our time and we are growing with them.</div>
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Once upon a time in the future, life will be a journey of feeling.</div>
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<i>Video and text made in the jungle by <a href="http://www.rebeccamolloy.com/">Rebecca Molloy</a>, April 2017. </i></div>
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</h4>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-22248820342312995242017-01-31T04:40:00.000-08:002017-07-19T04:31:02.740-07:00From Nicole Salcedo<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">05 - 31 Jan 2017</span></h4>
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Nicole Salcedo 28 Days</div>
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The anticipation of this trip began as soon as I booked my tickets. It has long since been my dream to come to the Amazon rainforest.I had no idea what to expect besides the accounts I had read online, but I knew I was in for quite a treat.<br />
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The jungle is a magical place, even in my exhaustion upon arrival I could immediately sense the energy coming through the thick of the trees.<br />
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The trees have such a commanding presence, but it was the ferns, moss, and vines creeping up the barks of lichen covered trees that really caught my attention. And the fungi! These organisms displayed such a variety of shapes and colors.<br />
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The color palette of this place doesn’t make itself known at first, seemingly all shades of greens and browns. But the more I walked the trails, the more I saw the gems of color. Coral reds, bright yellows and oranges, so many shades of pink.<br />
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Some of the plants have new growth leaves of iridescent purple that you can only see when the sun shines on them at just the right angle. These plants had me hooked. The lichen also has a very subtle palette that revealed itself to me little by little, along with the mosses that accompanied it. I couldn’t get enough of the pale shades of green and grey combined with patches of charcoal black and orange.<br />
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Then came the soil, totally lacking in nutrients but beautifully vibrant orange along the banks of the river, sprinkled with green hues of the opportunistic plants. I learned that the roots of the trees are very shallow due to the need to derive their nutrients strictly from the falling and decomposing leaves at the base of the roots.<br />
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The forest boasts of shape-shifting insects and leaves, survival through optical illusion, nothing is really what it seems until you take a closer look.<br />
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This place is a dream, the passage of time is so apparent, and yet, gets lost. The routine of the meals and activities helps but only to a certain extent, it really depends upon how you decide to spend the time. Hiking can seem to take hours when it has really only been 30 minutes, especially if you stop (like I do) to photograph every little interesting shape or color that crops up.<br />
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Hiking was one of my favorite activities, especially when I was accompanied by the resident biologists, Vania Tejeda. Her breadth of knowledge on birds and plants was incredibly captivating. We quickly became friends on this month long journey. Vania is from Arequipa, Peru and studied biology at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia. Her biggest passion is ornithology, but we also share a passion for art, Vani loves to paint in her down time.<br />
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This time away from my typical reality, has been very clearing for my mind, and the art that came out of it reflected exactly how I have been feeling out here. My body and consciousness covered in plants and other organisms.<br />
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My best advice would be to be open to any and every experience in this beautiful place, it has very ancient knowledge to offer.<br />
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<a href="http://itschachichinikki.tumblr.com/">Nicole Salcedo</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-57804797450382580352016-12-30T03:01:00.000-08:002017-01-03T03:08:42.202-08:00From Isabel Galleymore<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">01 Nov - 30 Nov 2016</span></h4>
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<b>Tambopata Research Lodge Isabel Galleymore </b></div>
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When I stepped off the plane in Puerto Maldonado, I thought the extreme heat pressing toward me came from the plane’s engines; the sweet-humid air suddenly surrounding me took me back to the controlled hot houses in Kew Gardens. My first few days in the Tambopata Reserve were punctuated by these perceptual mistakes. Coming from the UK, I kept finding myself comparing Western derivatives of tropical life to the real thing. Inhaling the saccharine scent of a flower that had fallen to the forest floor had me thinking of artificial air fresheners. Mortifying. But of course as I was confronted day after day with the scale and complexity of the rainforest, this way of looking at the rainforest soon wore off. The giant trees and their vein-work of creepers; the quietness of a two-toed sloth bathing in the last of the afternoon sunlight; macaws scattering over the dawn sky like flying rainbows; the monster sounds and smells of the peccaries; all these served to stretch my senses until “The New World”, the name given to the Americas by early sixteenth-century explorers, came to the fore. </div>
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My poems focus upon the natural world and how its complicated relationships might shed light upon our own human relationships. I knew a month in one of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests would introduce me to a whole new range of species and relations based on mutualism, parasitism and commensalism. A couple of weeks into my residency, I happened across a very hairy caterpillar overtaken by what must have been up to a hundred wasp eggs. The caterpillar was still alive on the tree trunk, but zombied by such a burden. </div>
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What astounded me about the environment I was seeing was not only these details, but the sheer physical matter of what was around me: the thickness of the leaves underfoot and the thickness of the leaves overhead; the huge vines loosely stitching everything together. Whilst I was curious about the small and intricate relations of species, I could not help but notice the atmosphere in which they took place: a place in which sex and threat dominate. This might just as easily be called “life and death” but such a phrase seems far too black and white in light of the rainforest’s incredibly colourful show in which pigment, form and movement might suggest a mating ritual just as it might suggest venom, poison, danger. Given it was the beginning of the rainy season, even the ladybirds (which I thought looked more like halved watermelons) were mating. Their rendezvous just metres from another discovery: a plant with leaves covered in thorns. </div>
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For a poet looking for a license to write about such exotic creatures, I had not expected how the rainforest would force me to confront the form of my writing – the very basics of stringing a sentence together. Common orders of grammar no longer seemed to apply. At first I thought this was because my own human voice was diminished: cicadas, frogs, macaws and howler monkeys (amongst others) spoke over all human noise at the lodge and on the trails. However, as I continued to write I started to wonder about the value and meaning of imposing literary rules and culture on such wildness. The rainforest’s prolific growth appeared antithetical to a full stop. What was the point of a stanza break or a comma when the subject of my writing suddenly flies away or I find it tangled inextricably around another plant? Returning to the UK with these thoughts, notes and poems feels like I am returning with riches.</div>
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A huge thank you to Nina Rodin and Abi Box and to all involved at Rainforest Expeditions. A special thanks goes to Laura Macedo, Emmaleen Tomalin and, for forcing me to practice my Spanish, Sabino Jaen. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-55468947464191866832016-12-22T05:52:00.000-08:002017-02-06T05:56:11.324-08:00From Taissia Basaria<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">01 Dec - 22 Dec 2016</span></h4>
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The Trelex residency went above all my expectations. It was amazing to see just how productive one can be given the time to work and the right environment and Refugio has been the perfect place. I was on the residency for 3 weeks. This was the first time I had gotten a chance to focus solely on my work without other obligations. I began painting right away. My daily schedule consisted of getting up at 4 am and after a quick breakfast, I was on site painting from life. On most days by 10 am, a couple landscapes were completed and the rest of the day was spent walking the jungle and scouting out the next painting location.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Tambopata River</span></td></tr>
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Even before arriving in Peru, I knew that the clay licks (colpas) where going to be one of my main subjects. They attract an abundance of wildlife and the colorful Macaw parrots flock there by the hundreds. With color being the most important element in my work, it was surreal to see such visual lushness in person and to be able to capture it in paint. But this I couldn't have done without the help of the Rainforest Expeditions guides. They were beyond generous with their time and, despite being on a tour schedule, let me paint the colpas from life. It is these paintings that I am basing my new body of work on, as I feel that it is the colpa that most embodies the spirit of the Amazon jungle with its visual abundance and the nourishment it provides.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Chuncho Colpa plein air</span></td></tr>
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The lodge is a hot spot for career professionals from all fields. Refugio welcomes many projects and there is always something new to learn. Whether it was going on night walks to the light trap to find new species of Tiger Moths, re-releasing a baby snake after its photo shoot for a biology book or watching a drone film uncharted jungle canopy. The jungle not only supplied subject matter but also a nurturing work environment to create.<br />
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I was very fortunate that my stay coincided with fellow artists Emmaleen. Although we had different styles, our works complemented each other well and I enjoyed watching her process. We spent many days drawing and walking the jungle paths together.<br />
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The management team at Refugio were very supportive of our work and over our last week there they arranged a gallery reception for us (pictures of the opening below). The work from the residency filled a very long communal dining table. After dinner guests and lodge staff got to finally see what we were working on over the past month. It brought me a lot of joy seeing everyone examining the works and trying to decide which one was their favorite. Many recognized the places I painted and we stayed up late as the employees told stories about the giant Lupuna tree from my drawing or about how they could tell the exact time of day that I had painted the river. Upon my return home, I found that it was the people that I missed the most.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Gallery opening night</span></td></tr>
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Trelex residency was a once in a lifetime experience. I still find it hard to believe that this opportunity came into my life. Working in the field challenged by painting abilities and the works completed while at the residency have already begun to open doors for me back home. Again, thank you Nina, for your generosity in creating such projects for fellow artists and Abi for all the care and support.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Colpa, painted from sketches done in the Amazon</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: underline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.taissiabasaria.com/">www.taissiabasaria.com</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-11118164493763959252016-12-21T09:38:00.000-08:002017-01-10T12:15:48.900-08:00From Emmaleen Tomalin<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">01 Nov - 21 Dec 2016</span></h4>
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I have a strange ache in my heart thinking about the amazon rainforest, the mystery of the place, the unfathomable depths. I struggled a lot to write this blog as I’m still trying to comprehend my experience of the jungle, so I’ll begin with a little list of loose descriptions.<br />
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A pair of slinky snake- like tayras weaving their way.<br />
Old man baby- faced capuchins with tails dipped in foam snatching fruits just outside my room.<br />
Bear faced tamarins and elfin squirrel monkeys moving across the canopy.<br />
Tiger moths and a purple berry dragonfly,<br />
Bullet ants hunting on the outskirts.<br />
Beastly, foul smelling peccaries with their squealing young. Clicking their teeth and bristling their hair.<br />
I heard footsteps and felt eyes on me.<br />
Mocking wild turkeys and a nightly moaning bamboo rat.<br />
A silent, slivery blue jungle bathed in super moon light.<br />
Gorgeous snowflake daisy fungi,<br />
Curly tails and swirly twigs. Walking trees growing new limbs.<br />
A stripy tailed raccoon weasel creature straight out a story book.<br />
Pulsing azure blue morpho butterflies,<br />
A gentle two-toed sloth person combing her hair in a world time all of her own.<br />
Crashing trees, drowning darkness and firefly fairies.<br />
Slow mournful ginger howlers resting and tuning up. And the eerie echoing begins. Here come the howlers.<br />
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There were times when being in the amazon felt like an out of body altered mind experience. I lived in a surreal dream world for seven weeks, with extremely heightened emotions, punctuated by reality from members of my own species. I was lucky enough to spend time both at the Tambopata research centre and Refugio Amazonas.<br />
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Everything was stranger and more complex than my wildest imaginings. How does an artist even begin to capture a place like this? I wondered. I knew I had to start scribbling as soon as possible before fear kicked in.<br />
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I began working in a sketchbook taking as many visual notes as possible and was fortunate enough to draw some animals from life. My absolute favourites were the two toed sloth and the howler monkeys. It was such a privilege to see these incredible animals let alone draw them. Although drawing through a telescope proved to be tricky.<br />
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I soon learned how difficult it is to see animals and how active of a process it is to spot them. The jungle slowly reveals itself if you are quiet, open minded and alert. I really enjoyed the daily visits from the macaws and peccaries and spent a lot of time trying to draw them in movement. Later on I started drawing hybrids of animals and began my own imaginary menagerie.<br />
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I slowed down in my last two weeks and spent a lot of time staring at trees, walking around on my own and trying to listen closely to the voices in the jungle. I enjoyed swinging on a hammock in the middle of the night watching the firefly fairies dart around in the enveloping darkness. This quiet absorption thinking time was just as important to me as drawing.<br />
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I saw and felt so much in the jungle and I am eternally grateful to have had this experience and to come home with countless ideas and invaluable visual information for new picture books.<br />
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I’m thankful I got to share my residency with the gentle, light-footed poet Isabel Galleymore who braved illness and the tough-as-nails landscape artist Taissia Basaira who grew a little pale but didn’t bat an eyelid after being repeatedly stung by a bullet ant. I’m also so glad I met the wholesome soul Laura Macedo (the guest service manager at TRC) who listened to me play guitar in the evenings. I learnt so much from these three women who challenged me each in their own way. I would also like to thank all the guides and rainforest expeditions for housing us and looking after us. Nina, thank you for starting such an amazing residency, Abi, thank you for all the leg work.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/129352866@N06/albums/72157675307816683/with/32195391906/">Emmaleen Tomalin's Flickr Album</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-65985290229452646832016-08-18T06:42:00.002-07:002016-08-18T06:53:22.885-07:00100 Artists<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
As Hugo Yoshikawa arrives this afternoon, Trelex welcomes its 100th Artist in Residence. To celebrate we have mapped out all 100 artists, showing roughly where everyone has arrived from. I’m honored to have welcomed so many artists from all these many places into both my studio at Trelex and the rainforest of Peru at Trelex Amazonas. Hover or click on the dots for information on each artist. <a href="https://trelexresidency.carto.com/viz/c39123a8-62d0-11e6-a2bd-0e3ff518bd15/embed_map">[full screen]</a><br />
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-74075780070660999672016-08-14T03:14:00.000-07:002016-08-16T00:53:32.658-07:00Leaf Portraits by Alina Dolgin<div class="" id="yiv7652910569yui_3_16_0_1_1454314922409_17691" style="background-color: white; line-height: normal;">
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Work by one of our first Trelex Amazonas residents, Alina Dolgin, inspired by her time in the Peruvian Rainforest.</div>
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<a href="http://trelexamazon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/from-alina-dolgin.html">Read Alina's original blog</a><br />
Follow Alina's work on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/alinadolgin/">Instagram</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-61159125116882712072016-03-31T09:45:00.000-07:002016-04-27T00:35:25.494-07:00From Ben & Sally & Yuri<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">01.03.2016 - 31.03.2016</span></h4>
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<b>Trelex Amazonas Residency: An Olfactory Exploration of Place. </b></div>
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Lai/Moat – March 2016 </div>
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From Puerto Maldonado the Chloropotera navigated the swollen Rio Tambopata southwestwards, upstream against the current and towards the distant Andean sierra. We passed flood-devastated plantations of banana and papaya and caught sight of distant clandestine miners feverishly labouring in search golden particulates with improvised, silt-sifting mechanisms. Then our first acquaintance with those which would become a constant during the weeks ahead; the howlers and capuchins, guacamayos, palms, vines, palo balsa, cana brava, unidentifiable merging vegetation straining upwards to the solitary, majestic Bertholletia exelsa (radium-emitting, they tell us). And then we’re engulfed in darkness and primary rainforest. Tambopata de verdad, immediate sensory overload and a welcome of open hearts, laughter and cool flannels from the Rainforest Expeditions community.<br />
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During those early days we floated between a conflicting world of jungle opulence and violence, observing a smattering of enthusiastic, long-lens tourists in virgin permethrin-impregnated shirts and a community of dedicated researchers – some of whom appeared to be assimilating the characteristics of their subjects; long limbs, flickering eyelids, heightened nocturnal animation.<br />
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We followed dark paths that meandered to nowhere and traversed the haunted lake. We shifted our gaze skyward following the mid-morning trajectory of the snake-like Anhinga bird to the canopy and beyond and then deep into the soil to the tangle of roots and mineral deposits. With our senses pre-conditioned by decades of exposure to European temperate familiarity, the expectation was of a scented bombardment – an exotica emanating from kaleidoscopic vegetation: floral, pollen, nectar, the sweet and the seductive. We searched with our noses and encountered damp, decaying ambiguity, decomposition, muted and transient micro-fragments originating from distant, anonymous sources. In his commendable work, ‘Tropical Nature’, Forsyth (1984) offers us a succinct explanation for this:<br />
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“Tropical plants avoid wind pollination because this scattershot method of gene dispersal is effective only if there are lots of targets nearby. Since there will probably be few individuals of the same species nearby, a plant casting its genetic fate to the wind faces a high risk of losing its investment”<br />
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Thus the impetus of our emerging inquiry now focused on what lay beneath. For this we’d adapt new exploratory techniques gleaned from a revelatory field trip with leading rainforest scientist Dr.Varun Swamy: in-depth genus identification, rubbing, scoring, snapping, pulverizing, peeling any potentially scented material. We followed clues found in a fading photocopy of Gentry’s Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants. We immersed in extended conversations with those that had an intimate knowledge of the rainforest through a lifetime of close contact – the chefs, porters, guides, members of the Infierno community – all generous with their wisdom, revealing personal botanical perspectives shared in a gentle vernacular. With our improvised apprenticeship now complete we were ready to fully immerse in the intoxicating neotropical world of aromatic possibility.<br />
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Our initial forays yielded encounters with fast-flowing latex, rancid M.citrifolia (with apparent life-prolonging properties), barks of stale garlic, the sour odour of the Pluthereum (identifiable by the ant community that reside within its stems prior to castrating the host to prevent flowering in order to reinforce the stem structures) and the Aniba with its urgent turpentine-esque tone. The proximity to our subjects was not entirely without risk – on more than one occasion we were injected with a searing toxic alkaloid delivered with stealth and guile by the Pseudomyrmex dendoicus. An identical alkaloid has been used in Ese Eja communities to castigate those partaking in misadventures of infidelity.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ErXPsUyHg9nNOcAzZ4Ylr34F7dTQ1EAmLt_oYYNkbeh4L1wTbKWfgy7gmqU9ghurrQm_DJ9yuoPz9dELhOwjIrxBvnMF3A6mnEdMZoVYOV6Oe-f_iUrMzD0Uv7H6X7At9_I4TxFUeG0/s1600/02_aniba_leaf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ErXPsUyHg9nNOcAzZ4Ylr34F7dTQ1EAmLt_oYYNkbeh4L1wTbKWfgy7gmqU9ghurrQm_DJ9yuoPz9dELhOwjIrxBvnMF3A6mnEdMZoVYOV6Oe-f_iUrMzD0Uv7H6X7At9_I4TxFUeG0/s320/02_aniba_leaf.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Aniba Leaf</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbNqtTxxMnD6djyVO9n0bxlNBYkm1IhmzaL1zoqKhur4MlHbgNto9rM_cSLkgv4D5R6tZLVVOaD5uIQ82Ww6M69XdcMbuTJTKF5dDfQG-ddEFlMbN1ziGadK0QTM2CGZH72GWN9k9Was/s1600/03_Unknown_funghi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbNqtTxxMnD6djyVO9n0bxlNBYkm1IhmzaL1zoqKhur4MlHbgNto9rM_cSLkgv4D5R6tZLVVOaD5uIQ82Ww6M69XdcMbuTJTKF5dDfQG-ddEFlMbN1ziGadK0QTM2CGZH72GWN9k9Was/s320/03_Unknown_funghi.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Unknown Funghi</span></td></tr>
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The jungle kitchen was alive with industrious activity. Food and associated provision had to be transported upstream by boat, overloaded carts heroically hauled through the rainforest, stored, prepared, presented, consumed, cleared, cleaned - herculean tasks deserving of universal admiration. We noticed a rare lull in activity during the early afternoons due to the religiously observed football game (participation encouraged). The head chef granted us access to the kitchen during this time for the purpose of ‘the advancement of artistic research’. We found heat and ice (scant supplies due electricity rationing), pitted and bruised steel saucepans and metallic bowls of varying sizes. Collectively these components created a rudimentary, yet effective distillation system capable of facilitating the infusion and suspension of aromatic molecules within water. With basic chemistry and infinite organic source material we’d be able to capture olfactory representations of the rainforest in the form of hydrosols.<br />
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Our selection methodology involved collecting samples from top to bottom - high canopy to sub-rainforest floor. Motivated in equal measure by material diversity, olfactory output and narrative potential the following samples were collected (with the support of researchers and volunteers) and converted into hydrosols:<br />
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- Guacamayo nest substrate - mixed mineral/vegetation (29m)<br />
- Philodendrum spp. - flower/leaf (18m)<br />
- Banisteriopsis Caapi - vine (15.4m)<br />
- Uristigma Matapalo – bark (15m)<br />
- Spondias Mombin/Ubo - Fruit (0m/9m)<br />
- Piper – leaf (4.8m)<br />
- Aniba Rosodora – leaf (4.4m)<br />
- Theobroma Cacao – fruit (3.8m)<br />
- Citrus Reticulata – Leaf (3.2m)<br />
- Theobroma grandiflorum/Copazu – fruit (2.7m)<br />
- Urera Baccifera – leaf (2.2m)<br />
- Croton lecheri/Sangre de Grado – bark/sap (2m)<br />
- Cotton T-shirt/3 days unwashed – fabric (1.6m)<br />
- M.Citrifolia/Noni – fruit (1.4m)<br />
- Floresta Super Extremo – chemical (1.2m)<br />
- Gallersia Integrifolia/Ajosquiro – bark (0.8m)<br />
- Unknown Funghi (awaiting identification) (0m)<br />
- Collpa Claylick clay (mineral) (-7m)<br />
- Rio Tambopata water (- 9m)<br />
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(figure in brackets denotes sample distance in meters from rainforest floor)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjn9u4dixCG1LHpo0eSuGNBX19C410J0G6NYix15Xji7JrtntXjWxRFX7mKLZcDt-IPFPQVltF0AKg4UE4fR50ku_XK77X3bMdA6rMuIq15FEYNMIn-kxq3Hd-ACPxfHojs2UubzY3CJM/s1600/04_collpa_claylickclay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjn9u4dixCG1LHpo0eSuGNBX19C410J0G6NYix15Xji7JrtntXjWxRFX7mKLZcDt-IPFPQVltF0AKg4UE4fR50ku_XK77X3bMdA6rMuIq15FEYNMIn-kxq3Hd-ACPxfHojs2UubzY3CJM/s320/04_collpa_claylickclay.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Collpa Claylick Clay</span></td></tr>
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The collection from Tambopata represents the initial stage of an evolving project, a work in progress. The aromas we carry with us are transient, temporary - some gradually fading as a result of time, fluctuations in temperature and altitude. Others will maintain their vigour.<br />
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Our journey will now take us onwards to the Altiplano, Atacama, Atlantic and beyond where new narratives will emerge and the distillation process will continue. And as we leave the jungle we learn that a hydrosol laboratory will be developed to become a permanent resource at Rainforest Expeditions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6BULpzz36ODHiGm4qQqQa58R3j2d2HemDT8gF8EDA02QbOHx9gCNzK9EUyAGnyR_Ts4Msz9ktJhGfsbkAsLzvp15_NAeFtT8yJhyphenhyphenseouPQuyYw5t4dC_SalToSP3EZnKKmuKsOrADVk/s1600/05_Completed_hydrosols.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6BULpzz36ODHiGm4qQqQa58R3j2d2HemDT8gF8EDA02QbOHx9gCNzK9EUyAGnyR_Ts4Msz9ktJhGfsbkAsLzvp15_NAeFtT8yJhyphenhyphenseouPQuyYw5t4dC_SalToSP3EZnKKmuKsOrADVk/s320/05_Completed_hydrosols.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Completed Hydrosols</span></td></tr>
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<b>Our gratitude and thanks go to: </b><br />
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Kurt Holle, Nina Rodin, Abi Box, Milagros Saux, Jesus Duran, Dr.Varun Swamy, Katherine Torres, Julian Herrera Sara, Claudia Torres Sovero, Patricia Deza, Richard Vargas Jara, Liz Paipay, Clifton Carter, Jesse Beck, Sabino Quispe Jaen, Cesar Carrasco Moroco, Eric Franz, The Hval Family, Misael Valera, Danny Couceiro, Lana Austin, Jorge, Tony, Dino.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.feralstudio.co/">www.feralstudio.co</a> </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-49777616923897300812016-03-31T01:40:00.000-07:002016-04-28T09:18:38.566-07:00From Sophie Morrish<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">29.02.2016 - 31.03.2016</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;"><b>Happiness doubled by wonder * </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">(Part One)</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">The Tambopata Rain Forest inspired in me a powerful reconnection with a particular state of innocence, one of intense childlike wonder. Overwhelmed by the sensorial clamour of the place, the heat, humidity, sounds and smells, all unfamiliar, all enthralling, not least among them was the sheer visual complexity of the jungle. Looking about you it is difficult to settle your gaze on any one thing, the rich tangle of shrubs, trees and vines, far from being a passive backdrop, is host to a myriad of wonders and innumerable narratives that play out to an intricate soundtrack of birds, insects, monkeys and frogs, mostly unseen, their presence betrayed only by their sounds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Perception is radically different here to that experienced in a tamed landscape, it is an environment of vital forces, a near pristine habitat of living systems that are evident at every turn, (Tambopata National Reserve is one of the largest contiguous areas of primary rainforest in the Amazon basin and considered by many to be the best). Walking in the forest new and intriguing natural phenomena assail you at every turn; to realise a singular viewpoint or focus is impossible and perhaps more importantly, seems senseless to pursue. Very quickly a strong sense of being ‘within’ takes hold and, surrounded, you realise your perspective is rarely one of any great (physical), distance from a thing observed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">It takes time to feel your way into this place, as initial fears and uncertainties slowly fall away - although never entirely - they are replaced by transient sensations of ease, familiarity, comfort and most frequently, elation. Days are punctuated in unanticipated ways - the distant sound of a large tree crashing to the forest floor, the chatter of monkeys, call and response between Toucan, the grunting, crunching and snorting of a passing band of White-lipped Peccaries, (not to mention their eye wateringly pungent odour!), the relentless flow of industrious leafcutter ants across the forest floor, all are fascinating, all are utterly absorbing. Once you stop to observe a given phenomena you become aware of all the surrounding relationships that give context to that which first caught your attention. Hours pass in what seem like minutes, the days never long enough to exhaust the feeling of enthrallment. It is the complex living connections, visceral and dramatic that are in essence the magic of the place. Here it is possible to feel deeply, what we, (in the ‘developed world’), have lost by all we have gained. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Returning home from the jungle, there is so much to process, so many impressions and experiences, thoughts, feelings and ideas. Reading through my notebooks, looking at photographs, films and drawings made, listening to numerous field recordings, it feels too soon…a sharp pang of emotion, a sense of loss even, tells me it is indeed too soon for me to acknowledge this experience as passed, (past). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">My starting point for this residency was to explore unlikely parallels that might be drawn between my ‘habitat’, North Uist, in the Western Isles of Scotland, (arguably one of the most Bio-diverse places in the U.K.), and that of the Amazon Rain Forest, (the most Bio-diverse area of the planet); locations whose natural circumstances could hardly be more different but each of whom is of immeasurable value in their own right and should I feel, be acknowledged and treated as such. This particular strand of enquiry, (a component of other deeply held, long standing creative interests), began with field recordings made in Uist in early 2015. Now, enriched by juxtaposition to the Amazonian ‘data’, the work needs time to develop, I am excited to see where and to what it will lead. I hope I can do justice to all that has brought me thus far.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">For an artist whose work primarily stems from walking and consideration of phenomenal relationships, a visit to the Amazon Rain forest was nothing short of the most treasured and exquisite of gifts - one that will enrich and inform my practice far into the future, one for which I do not have the words to adequately express my gratitude for. I am eternally grateful to Nina Rodin and The Trélex Residency for this wonderful opportunity and to Kurt Holle / Rain Forest Expeditions for their unstinting, remarkable generosity in facilitating it. Equal thanks go to all the hardworking staff at the Refugio and Tambopata Research lodges, to the guides and researchers whose knowledge, expertise and good humour added so greatly to the whole experience. Thanks goes too to the many visitors who took a keen interest in my work and who welcomed me to join their walks, in particular Edith Wu, Lynette McLamb & Todd Steiner, with whom, (in the company of Robin their guide), I saw so many marvellous creatures. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">I am grateful also to CNES (Western Isles Council) and Creative Scotland for the Visual Arts Grant that supported my residency and last but by no means least, to my partner René Jansen, for his encouragement and support and for holding the fort and walking the dogs in my absence – I couldn’t have done it without you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Sophie Morrish</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">North Uist, April 2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;">*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>‘</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><i>I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.</i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;"><i>’</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i style="font-family: arial; font-size: 8px;"> G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"></span> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-60411815542245266292016-03-30T05:27:00.000-07:002016-11-10T01:46:41.504-08:00From Ella Dawn McGeough<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">01.01.2016 - 30.03.2016</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>and, something like fire dancing: </i>Amy Brener, Patrick Cruz, Barbara Kasten, Scott Lyall<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">organized by Ella Dawn McGeough</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">8 September to 15 October 2016 at <a href="http://susanhobbs.com/exhibits/1354-amy-brener-patrick-cruz-barbara-kasten-scott-lyall-organized-by-ella-dawn-mcgeough">Susan Hobbs Gallery</a>, Toronto</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Last winter, I spent 87 days on residency in the southwest corner of Peru in the Tambopata National Reserve, an area acclaimed for having the planet’s densest bio-diversity. I brought Public 51 edited by Scott Lyall and Christine Davis on the subject of colour with extensive writing by Isabelle Stengers. While I was preparing to leave Toronto, I was in the early stages of planning this exhibition. With the upcoming limits of communication, I sent preliminary invitations to four artists: Amy Brener, Patrick Cruz, Scott Lyall, and Barbara Kasten. With the exhibition plan barely a sketch, their agreement was a performance of trust.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Initially, what held these artists’ practices together was a question of diffusion: an investment in the stuff of transparency and lightness, whether with the glazed ink and laminated glass within Scott’s works; embedded reflective elements and delicate films of silicon and resin within Amy’s sculptures; temporal quickness at play in Patrick’s unstretched canvases, where individual works act as vectors for the next; or the illuminated planes of screen and glass employed by Barbara in her sculptural sets. Despite the vitreous quality of many of their works, the layers used seemed to offer a resistance against ephemerality. Instead, each artist appeared to assert the relevance of materiality and technique. Through repetition, something light gained substance, like the weight of endurance.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">The rainforest is heavy with the weight of its lightest entities: fungi…ants…butterflies. Every rainy season, for a brief duration, a parasitic plant emerges from the bark of a tree as tiny yellow fruit. Caterpillars arrive to relentlessly chew the plant, while a mass of ants stand as bodyguards to protect against would-be predators such as birds and larger insects. The ants are rewarded for their service with honeydew drummed from an exposed organ on the caterpillars’ back. When the butterfly finally presents itself, its wings blaze with an image of the yellow fruit. This image is produced without light; it is an image of home, an image of process called colour. Collectively, each entity survives in sympathy, held to the others through the dynamics of infection.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Likewise, the endurance of a work of art is either confirmed or denied by its power to infect and be infected by other artworks in both the space of exhibition and the space of history. This is not a matter of power as repression, i.e. the power of one entity to impose itself upon a lesser entity. Rather, the term infection is used as a matter of inciting an embodied relationship. What Stengers’ describes as the link between power and adventure. Effectively, the power of one being is gained by its ability to be receptive to the power of another being. The conceit of this exhibition is that―like interspecies relationships evident in nature―that which endures in culture is not self-sufficient. However while in nature, material reality holds subjects together. In visual art, it is subjective reality that holds objects together. It is the visitor’s awareness that forms the non-discursive link between art objects. Held together, each work valorizes the other, shapes the other, attributes a role to the other.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Composed of a relationship between four diverse artists whose respective practices are separated by cultural context, methodology, and media, the exhibition becomes a type of portrayal with the artworks loosely mirroring the role of plant, ant, caterpillar, or butterfly. However, it is a portrait that follows the rules of mimicry over representation. On the wall, Barbara’s work assumes the twinned roles of host and guest, both here and there. It is both a convergence of relational activities that belong to the studio―a space of becoming―and a photographic result intended for visual consumption. Amy’s Flexi-Shield series are suspended from the ceiling: talismanic dresses made from poured silicone whose slippery interface contains tools for survival. Hung in repetition, they function as equipment. A polymorphous defence system. Patrick’s installation eschews permanence in favour of dispersion. Laid on the ground, his improvisational canvases slowly secrete, transferring to the soles of shoes. Upstairs, Scott pursues his reflection into the gap of historical difference between painting and photography. Specifically the role of colour within these two modes of artistic expression as an eternal object that comes when called, that appears when wanted. Colour that matters. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">installation view, </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: start;">and, something like fire dancing</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">, 2016 </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Barbara Kasten, </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica;">Studio Construct 19</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">, 2007</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Patrick Cruz, </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica;">landscape painting version 4</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">, 2013-16</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">Amy Brener, </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: start;">Flexi-Shield (sunset)</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">, 2016; </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: start;">Flexi-Shield (amulet)</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">, 2016; </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: start;">Flexi-Shield (sunrise)</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">, 2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">installation view upstairs, <i>and, something like fire dancing</i>, 2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">Scott Lyall, detail view </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: start;">(untitled) redshift</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: start;">, 2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"><i>Photo Credit: Toni Hafkenscheid, Courtesy Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto</i> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://blog.perunature.com/2015/11/mystery-of-yellow-bulbs-discovery-of.html">Mystery of the Yellow Bulbs: Discovery in the Amazon of a New Caterpillar-Ant-Parasitic Plant Relationship by Aaron Pomerantz</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://issuu.com/publicjournal/docs/public51_final_preview/1?e=1">Public 51: Colour</a>, edited by Christine Davis and Scott Lyall</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://data.logograph.com/SusanHobbs/docs/Document/1285/FrameWork%209-16.pdf">FrameWork 9/16</a>: Aryen Hoekstra on and, something like fire dancing</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://elladawnmcgeough.com/">Ella's website</a></span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-19881523306270142652016-02-10T13:08:00.000-08:002017-11-05T10:01:34.531-08:00From Abi Box<br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">01 - 10 Jan 2016 </span></h4>
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My time in the rainforest has made me want to write poetically but I’m a terrible poet. I'll start by running up a long list of disconnected adjectives like wild, unruly and tangled, alive, darker than I imagined, damp, dirty, close,.. until we climbed up the tower.<br />
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Looking out at the top of the tower, a manmade structure built to stand above the canopy, above all the mess and disorder lower down, you can see the surface of the tree tops, which look like broccoli, miles of broccoli.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">top of the canopy</td></tr>
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Climbing up through the argument of branches into the clearing feels like swimming underwater then surfacing into calm and open air. I climbed the tower three times during our visit, going at different times in the day: once in the morning to watch the light arrive, once in the evening where we watched the sun go down and another time, late at night when there was no light at all apart from the stars which littered the dark space like dust.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the pond #5am</td></tr>
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We often woke up before 5am, before sunrise. Trekking through the trees, lighting up the pitch black with our head torches, the air thick with ticks, hums and hoots. Slowly light would creep in as we would reach our destination. One day we went to watch the pond wake up. Everywhere where we went felt like we were trespassing, keeping very quiet and on the lookout constantly for interesting specimens or ongoings. I didn’t realise that I had such an affinity for bats. In the pond, on a plank of wood jutting out at an angle, there were four or five bats roosting (I just had to google ‘do bats roost?’ apparently they do) and there were another set flying laps of the pond getting ready to join them. It was light by this time and we could clearly see them clung on upside down, twitching about and settling down for the day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Squirrel Monkey</td></tr>
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I also love squirrel monkeys now. I won’t go on but I want to be one.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nina and I looking up at Howler Monkeys</td></tr>
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I have dived right in here, there’s so much to write about., a bit about how I came to be here. The Trélex Amazon Artist Residency was set up in 2014, a conversation happened between Nina (founder of the <a href="http://trelexresidency.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Trélex Residency</a> in Switzerland) and Kurt Holle (owner of <a href="http://www.perunature.com/" target="_blank">Rainforest Expeditions</a>) and subsequently artists began arriving at the lodges to stay as residents. Two artists can come at a time during the rainy season, while there are spare rooms available, and so far eleven artists have visited. A success story but it all happened so quickly. We went out to talk in person to all the staff, guides, researchers to share our thanks and to highlight why and how much of a difference this opportunity makes to all the artists.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colin taking about his practice</td></tr>
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We were also able to spend time with the artists who were residents at the time, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ella_dawn/" target="_blank">Ella</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/minercolin/" target="_blank">Colin</a> and <a href="http://www.maisiemcneice.com/" target="_blank">Maisie</a>. Over the course of the week we all took it in turns to do a short talk about our our work and our interests. At Nina’s studio in Trélex, home to the first residency, she usually tries to do this in the first few days of an artist's visit, to kick start a conversation which will most likely continue throughout all the tea and coffee breaks to follow. I’m always surprised by how much stuff is unearthed when we do this, what ideas and inspirations are making people tick.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fernando and Nina walking</td></tr>
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Halfway through the trip I was taken aback to realise how much of a daily routine we had picked up. One full of walking and exploring; I don’t think I thought that we would do so much of it. Each walk we went on was at least a couple of hours and we often went on more than one; I was back in the girl guides. The trip to the second lodge TRC, involves a six or seven hour boat ride. Having looked at the area on <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Tambopata+Research+Center+Lodge/@-13.128841,-69.6162425,26471m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x9164e105e1f9210f:0x557d9622be80730d">Google Maps</a> before we set off to Peru, I had a good picture of what we might look like from up above as tiny GPS dots amidst the sea of green. It was an awesome feeling to know that on each walk we took, the forest surrounding us was never ending.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dramatic atmosphere</td></tr>
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I found a fascination with a lot of things in the rainforest but the thing which kept catching my attention was the way distances appeared. An interesting sense of depth is created by the humidity, the moisture in the air obscuring anything which lies a short distance away. Tree filled backdrops are muted and misty creating an incredibly theatrical atmosphere. Especially in the mornings, along with the howler monkeys eerily sounding off their territory, it often felt like a movie set.<br />
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This unusual sense for depth was the thing I felt I could focus on within my work. My painting has a lot to do with layering and the way things take up space, or not. I found it difficult to work on anything which would portray all of this during the trip so I stuck to collecting my thoughts, taking photographs and making drawings… visual notes, of everything around me to take back to work on in the studio, back at home in London.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">perspex sheet etched into with a nail..</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">..held up against the rainforest</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">drawing the view from the lodge</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nina and I take over one of the dining tables</td></tr>
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On the residency website, Nina has posted a <a href="http://trelexamazon.blogspot.co.uk/p/environment.html" target="_blank">recording</a> that she made on her first visit to Amazonas Refugio. She posted it as a mild warning to artists for how relentless the rainforest soundtrack is, day and night. I’ve had it on in the background while I type because I miss it.<br />
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Thank you to everyone at Rainforest Expeditions for making this a thing.<br />
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<a href="http://www.abi-box.com/" target="_blank">abi-box.com</a><br />
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/abi_box/" target="_blank">Instagram</a><br />
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Postcard to Fernando (our guide):<i> “To the best pigmy owl impersonator in town. Thank you for taking me and Nina on walks, teaching us what not to touch, how best to cook fish in bamboo and how to milk a Capybara. I will never forget looking up at the stars! At Jupiter and the milky way. I cross my fingers that I am able to return soon and that you can read my handwriting! Abi xx”</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All Lovers Must, Abi Box</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Argument of Branches II, Abi Box</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Burnt Spaghetti, Abi Box</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jungle Spatula, Abi Box</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Losing Ourselves Together, Abi Box</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Argument of Branches, Abi Box</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-43847534511096971582016-02-03T04:55:00.000-08:002016-02-03T04:55:48.391-08:00From Min Kim27.10 - 18.12.2015<br />
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This is extraordinary blog started by <a href="http://www.min-kim.com/root/le-joujou-du-pauvre/" target="_blank">Min Kim</a> while at the Trelex Amazon Residency. It is an on-going project as she continues to add to it. When you have experienced it, the rainforest stays with you for a long time.<br />
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The blog is called 'Nyctophilia' which means a preference or love for night or darkness. Min Kim's own description of the blog reads: <span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">'infinite night loud eyes picnic ears nocturnal rain blue gaze lemon giggling singing you a long for freedom mother green pivotal moments'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">Please visit the blog by clicking <a href="http://nyctophilia-9.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. And remember to subscribe to the blog if you want to read subsequent additions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">And if, like me, you find yourself pulled into the unique poetry of Kim's worldview, I recommend you also look at her post from her time at the original Trelex Residency <a href="http://snowatdawn.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"> by Nina Rodin, Feb 2016.</span></div>
Nina Rodinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07762735401279716079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-66372875601981233172016-01-30T01:51:00.000-08:002016-04-08T02:14:50.032-07:00From Lucie Winterson: afterthoughts... <div class="p1" style="line-height: normal; padding: 0px;">
<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I came to Madre de Dios on 9 December 2015 and stayed till 8 January 2016 I arrived with the intention of experiencing a new nature. Nature has always been at the core of my practice and I have many years of familiarity with certain British landscapes: north west Scotland, Devon, and east anglia. I was, however, thrilled with the idea of turning this over and going to the other side of the globe and to a different terrain — the tropical rainforest, the greatest biodiversity of all. The most pressing need I had was simply to be in the rainforest. I wanted to feel it, get to know it, to have time for it to be imprinted on my psyche - and to allow that hoped-for engagement to generate thought and artistic practice.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I didn’t want to predict what I would do but laid out some plans and ideas just in case. I knew I’d make cyanotypes of plants from the forest. I’d envisioned this from home with anticipation. I knew I would take photographs and with any luck work with local earth — and the rest, I would see. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I had brought prepared cyanotype paper carefully sealed in light fast bags, I’d packed gum arabic to mix with earth so it would adhere to paper, I brought lots of drawing equipment, watercolours and a good camera. Along came, also, the good old laptop so as well as writing I could reel through the hundreds of photographs I knew I would take. Actually it was in the thousands.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I couldn’t help taking photographs whenever I was astonished or amazed by something — which was very often indeed and this constitutes the main body of the work I did there — but I watched out for the point when taking photographs gets in the way of experience, when it becomes acquisitive rather than responsive. Towards the end I walked in the forest with no camera, note book, or prop of any kind.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">Most of my photographs are of looking into the forest at eye level, focusing into the distance to find the sense of the complexity and myriad variety of shape and form, light and shade. It is different, obviously, from any forest I’ve seen because as well the general vertical tendancy of trees, branches, bromeliads and vines spread horizontally, crisscrossing diagonally and looping in curves. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"><br /></span> <span class="s1"><br /></span> <span class="s1"> With that and the extraordinary scale and radical shape variation of leaves there is a sense of sculpted space that I found endlessly fascinating and compelling. Colour wise it is more uniform, the variations in tone coming from the changing light. Sometimes when the sun is in a particular place and there is a gap in the canopy, light will come beaming down, lighting up just one small area or plant in a sudden incandescence. And if the changing light wasn’t enough there is also the sudden rains, and the forest is lit up again, differently — leaves glistening and luminous, contrasting with the darkness of the sodden earth and bark. </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I also loved working with cyanotypes of plants from the rainforest, with a sense of experimentation and discovery, my paper running out too quickly. There is such fine detail obtainable with cyanotypes, even tiny filigree root hairs becoming apparent. They can also be strongly poetically charged. The ones I was most pleased with were those where the plant or plants become quite abstract and morphed into a different kind of beings. When there are two or more plants, it can suggest a dialogue between them but I also enjoyed the bold poetry of a single plant. Also significant is the way in which the living plant is so directly registered. It has touched the paper, lain on it, left a resonance, more than a trace. It was a wonderful way to feel attuned to the forest and is a way of working I will be taking forward in other ways to other places.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I wanted to work with the rain — and this proved quite difficult. Partly because due to El Niño it didn’t rain as much as usual, and because timing was complex - I wanted to do cyanotypes with rain, but managed only one that I kept. I needed more paper, more time, more rain! More satisfactory was mud coated onto paper, and then left in the rain, to register the marks of the rainfall. However even this was limited. It would pour, I would prepare the mud on paper which needed to be at a particular point of dampness before exposing it to the rain. Then I would go out, and of course the rain would have stopped. This happened unaccountably and infuriatingly often.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">I also gathered mud to experiment with. I made small studies of oval shaped mud puddles — reminiscent of eggs or stones. These dried over a period of several days on the floor of my room and insects crept and hopped out of the mud and over the paper leaving light traces and marks, or in some instances nibbling at the mud and making patterns that way. I took this all as part of the rhythm and life of the finished sketch. </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">On a few occasions I took puddles of paint or mud and left them out over night in the forest, hoping for some action, of insects or rain. Only one was moderately successful. The procedure itself was too frustrating in the given working circumstances — and on the whole they were either rained out or they dried too fast for anything to happen.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">Later I began to have a lot of satisfaction with drawings of plants made with a pipette using earth from the forest mixed with gum arabic as a binder. I drew plants I collected from the forest, engaging with them very directly — sometimes only looking at the plant and not even at the paper at all as I followed the form, tracing my seeing. This helped make as direct connection as I could with the nature of the forest through the process of looking, feeling, drawing.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">There was poetry too. Early on when I’d lost my bearings and was somewhat lonely, my phone threw at me some John Clare poetry. Phones do this sometimes — when you sit on them or they do ‘bag calls’. It never feels quite random. Out of nowhere my phone had got itself into the Kindle app and produced a poem! It was a minor wonder as the deep communication the poem provided was just what I needed. I decided I wanted to read John Clare to the rainforest. This early 19th century english poet of nature had suffered chronically due to the loss of the nature he knew, through the enclosures, landowners blocking off access to fields, woods and meadows. I thought I’d take him through space and time to a different hemisphere via his poetry to an encounter with a tropical nature of now. I found a way to do this and film it, in a watery area of forest.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">And now I’m back but it still feels very recent. Just three weeks ago I was there and it will take a while to process it all. Having made a personal connection to this extraordinary place, I’m wondering how to apply this more widely. I’m also thinking further of contexts including that of climate change, the impact of damage and loss. I’m not there yet, but I’m beginning to shape the exhibition I intend to have and thinking of what else I will be doing going forward. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">My feeling is that encounters with all variety of nature in this increasingly globalised world whose biosphere is in crisis, are radical and precious and that the creative language which emerges, in whatever art form, needs to be spoken out loudly.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">(written 01.02.2016)</span><br />
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Nina Rodinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07762735401279716079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-6879822980046115322016-01-08T13:15:00.000-08:002016-01-28T13:18:06.342-08:00From Lucie Winterson<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">09.12.2015 - 08.01.2016</span></h4>
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<b>Into the rainforest</b><br />
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The heart of darkness, the great unfurling of deep nature, the ferocious jungle, the unrepressed. I came with these preconceptions and observed with curiosity as they fell away, waiting to find out what would replace them. The jungle myths were easily dispelled. The forest is far more than the site of grim battles to the death, it is not rife with danger. Those things are a small part of what it contains but mostly the jungle is calm, with noises rising and subsiding. <br /><br />Visually it is endlessly interesting because the vegetation is so varied and the real exotic — wonder at the ‘different’ — is pleasurably here. Trees whose roots start outside of the ground, ‘walking’ trees, trees with buttress roots. A tree that smells strongly of garlic after the rain. The two things that most astonished me when I first entered the jungle, were both sounds. One a bird, the ora pendula, whose call sounds like a pebble being dropped into water with a loud ‘plop’ and the other was the howler monkeys — which don’t howl at all. They emit a sound like a low but rising wind that spreads through the forest as if from very far away. The most apparent thing that moves is the light and the changing weather. Over all the forest is peaceful.<br />
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The danger myth is the hardest one to shake off. I learned last night what to do if I encounter a jaguar. Don’t run or you become prey. Make bizarre and unlikely noises to frighten it off. I was also told that unlike jaguars, pumas will stalk you. But they are more in the higher areas and the mountains, not here. In which case why were several of them very evident in the footage from the camera traps presented here the other night? They are here in fact, very much so, all of them, walking the same paths as us. But they slip away, dissolving into the jungle at the hint of a human. As hard as I try, though, I can’t feel fully confident that I won’t get eaten by a jaguar, ocelot or puma. To ask for a foolproof guarantee is unreasonable, I know, but I can’t help trying. The best answer I get, really, is that it has never happened. Well, to anyone with the remotest tendency to paranoia how does that help? <br /><br />Initially I take off into the forest and the wonder of it will sweep me up — as I walk it passes rapidly through different phases of light, of rain, of luminous density and intricate shadow. After some walking, however, when I’m sweating and damp, tired and perhaps with minor sunstroke, my camera has steamed up and I’m a fair way from the lodge; then the jaguar thoughts will come. The pumas of the mind will stalk me: ‘It’s never happened…….But it could’. The forest turns muddy and loses its gleam. I hasten back.<br /><br />So far there has been only one mote of darkness. Falling asleep one night I heard a creature I’ve never heard before or since. A bird? A frog? Its sound was eerie and mocking. A malign little goblin laugh feeding into my dreams.<br /><br />Madre de Dios, Peru Christmas day 2015<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-12299886017790308412016-01-02T09:37:00.000-08:002018-12-03T04:27:00.319-08:00From Colin Miner<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">2 Jan - 30 Mar 2016</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;"><i>The man, who day after day, took pictures of shadows </i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">A while ago that still feels recent, I learned to walk with a cat. We followed many paths, like methodologies, which often offered long waits for things that would not appear. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">Alongside, my eyes began looking for birds, an occupation that came naturally. Colour, form, movement, and specific qualities of relations proposed comparisons to be translated through depictions in books. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">Familiar with looking for details in contrast to positions of movement, my eyes became disciplined on stillness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">Having trained them to see birds, my eyes turned curious for cats. And so, walking with one cat lead to a lot of walking looking for cats. Previously there appeared not to be many cats and now, many many cats. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">Along with a cat (Ocelot) I had the wonderful experience of sharing space with a sloth, harpy eagle, and countless other living organisms during my residency. It was an experience that has taken a significant amount of time to process and was immensely generative in affecting my practice and offering points of departure that I am still exploring. One of the most beneficial aspects was the prolonged period of reflection and contemplation that was offered. It is rare to be offered such an open-ended opportunity in addition to support for a sustained engagement. At first overwhelmed by the heat, humidity, extreme diversity and density of the ecosystem I became able to sink into the uniqueness of a space and time of the remote amazon rainforest. The adaptation that assisted me the most was a developing of slowness – or slowing down, in which to be as present (and reflective) as possible. Experiences with cats, birds, and the complexity of that ecosystem have lead to the development of works exhibited over the last few years in numerous institutions within Canada, and a forthcoming publication with Blank Cheque Press (late 2018-early 2019). Further research influenced by this residency is being conducted on the subject of the sloth and slowness in relation to contemporary art theory and a concept of anxiety as question without answer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 12px;">Further information on projects and work influenced by this residency can be found at <a href="http://www.colinminer.com/">www.colinminer.com</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="font-size: 12px;">I would like to offer my sincere appreciation for all the support I received leading up to, during, and following my residency with Trelex in the Peruvian Amazon. There were so many wonderful experiences and challenges that have affected both how I experience and understand the world in which I reside. That is a remarkable thing to be offered at any stage in life and would not be possible without the generosity of the people, place, and all the amazing inhabitants (lanes, insects and animals) of the Tambopata region. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;">Link to </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;">Untitled (leaf)</i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;"> </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;"><u><a href="https://vimeo.com/219393123">here</a></u></span></span></div>
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Rebecca Molloyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933032958387055932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-31635298157154063172015-12-09T03:48:00.000-08:002016-04-08T05:01:14.889-07:00From Suzy Gonzalez<span style="font-family: inherit;">26.10.2015 - 09.12.2015</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">My trip to Peru was nothing short of amazing. I knew I would be spending most of my time with The Trelex Residency in the rainforest, but I also wanted to explore the mountainous parts of the country. Before heading to Puerto Maldonado, I was a photography volunteer with an incredible conservation organization called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FaunaForever/" target="_blank">Fauna Forever</a>. I earned some great hiking, bird watching, and photography experience with them and was fortunate enough to get to visit Machu Pichu as well. I would highly recommend spending some time around Cusco before or after the residency to take advantage of the diverse regions and climates of the country, and it never hurts to volunteer for a good cause!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKtG4lSMrl2aykSaTwUoY6l-qjP_nEVQ6RvFJIlu6jxCw3b9k7UEzhtEpYxmtonWEcLyMH7d7f3c1dHwbKPyD15-YYesQm9bSmfN-BsNh9uJcew3a0yLp7zdAte9xvIlsdaLeW9EDz64/s1600/12524081_10153228215961496_757288749473134445_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKtG4lSMrl2aykSaTwUoY6l-qjP_nEVQ6RvFJIlu6jxCw3b9k7UEzhtEpYxmtonWEcLyMH7d7f3c1dHwbKPyD15-YYesQm9bSmfN-BsNh9uJcew3a0yLp7zdAte9xvIlsdaLeW9EDz64/s320/12524081_10153228215961496_757288749473134445_n.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From Cusco, I chose the 30 minute flight to Puerto Maldonado rather than a 10 hour bus ride. I first stayed at Refugio</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Amazonas for about a week before heading to the Tambopata Research Center. I didn’t want to get too comfortable there, so I worked on collages from the photographs I had gathered in Cusco, and decided to not start painting until I settled down. Moving to TRC was such an exciting time. It is much more secluded and I felt I had all the time in the world to experience nature and conceptualize my work. The trickiest part for me was balancing the urge to explore with producing work. I didn’t let this stress me out though. I knew I could always paint back home. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_txmbmM660SMRzVRQJmmKGbYV3U3dlXGtjJ5x4XXpfU4pb9mXmOy5I3fAta74pMv0WCOTqjgMVx88Zohu1sm3NF7faGgr4at7jakYq7rzqZGw1hltj06NE2QYlZ7BfxnVT8nG9Pc1WI/s1600/Perro+Peruano+y+Los+Siete+Borreguitos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_txmbmM660SMRzVRQJmmKGbYV3U3dlXGtjJ5x4XXpfU4pb9mXmOy5I3fAta74pMv0WCOTqjgMVx88Zohu1sm3NF7faGgr4at7jakYq7rzqZGw1hltj06NE2QYlZ7BfxnVT8nG9Pc1WI/s320/Perro+Peruano+y+Los+Siete+Borreguitos.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Pedro Peruano y Los Siete Borreguitos, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24''</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Min Kim and I were each given a room with two twin size beds. As there was no easel available, I worked with what I had and used my second bed as a sort of painting table. There was a small side table that I could also place my paints and palette on. I would recommend to never leave wet paint uncovered as the macaws will step in it and then continue to step on everything else in your room! On that note, I used acrylic paints here, as I was pretty sure oil paints would never dry in this climate. On rainy days, the acrylic would act a bit like oil paint, not drying until the next day. However, on days when it was incredibly hot and dry, my paint was almost like glue, and this was frustrating to work with (I tend to prefer the consistency of oils).</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9htboS0ls72oAxorFQFnGlwObIpL8tVYnQDjIG2AiORjHOrcIfFBH3sD8kL6dTpowL44DnXN7EMf2qeaZvR3lk3lJLWvyRUzItKB5MLuW7V8DWK-uXHyNKif9fCX7VM9uVlkInkBo2E/s1600/selva+vs+agricultura.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9htboS0ls72oAxorFQFnGlwObIpL8tVYnQDjIG2AiORjHOrcIfFBH3sD8kL6dTpowL44DnXN7EMf2qeaZvR3lk3lJLWvyRUzItKB5MLuW7V8DWK-uXHyNKif9fCX7VM9uVlkInkBo2E/s320/selva+vs+agricultura.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Selva vs. Agricultura, digital collage</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The time frame to work for me was from 7am-5pm, as the sun was my only light source and it would get dark pretty early. The evenings were a great time for me to get some reading done, but I should have brought more books as I finished mine about halfway through my trip. I was constantly taking photographs as inspiration for my paintings. My favorite time to go out was at night, taking micro photos of insects and spiders, and catching a nice starry night every once in a while. The daytime was best for capturing monkeys, birds, and plant life. With these photos, I would make collages by hand or mostly on my computer, which I would then paint from. I brought a travel printer with me, which was nice, but not totally necessary in retrospect. I was able to make three paintings there, and I’m continuing to work on the series. Sometimes when I didn’t feel like painting, I would try to do a daily blind contour drawing of something, usually of my face or an insect that had been hanging out in my room. I was able to travel to Peru on a Grad Studies Grant from the Rhode Island School of Design, and my proposal had been to make paintings that observed colonization and deforestation, and how these resulted in the displacement of beings. I stayed true to these concepts in an theoretical manner, collaging parts of people, animals, and objects that I came across. My original idea of Hybridizing the Rainforest evolved after my experiences ran together into more of a hybridization of different beings that I came across in Peru</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3oMusbbqqdgbKeYsunb34KTe5fdZnj8zFhXSAi4ayEUWHURsJ90WnzuD2UaRzq7Yy5gMi5WvqMmJ6wy35cKJNuegbqP6WSIiGk0wnV4KFJqnWO0JKFXc6A-gySV7vDu9nPS1LVOGhvBI/s1600/Mujer+Llama+desde+Cusco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3oMusbbqqdgbKeYsunb34KTe5fdZnj8zFhXSAi4ayEUWHURsJ90WnzuD2UaRzq7Yy5gMi5WvqMmJ6wy35cKJNuegbqP6WSIiGk0wnV4KFJqnWO0JKFXc6A-gySV7vDu9nPS1LVOGhvBI/s320/Mujer+Llama+desde+Cusco.jpg" width="241" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Muter Llama desde Cusco, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18''</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The food was fantastic, and the kitchen was incredibly kind in preparing vegan food for me. There was no shortage of nutrients; I ate very well. It was also incredibly helpful to know enough Spanish to communicate on a basic level with non-English speakers. Min and I would go into the forest with a guide a few times a week, usually after lunch so we could have the mornings to work. We would either join up with a tourist group or go with a guide who wasn’t working at the moment and just wanted to explore (Julian). They all knew their way around quite well and knew so much about the wildlife. I really learned a lot from these excursions, and was able to go back to my field guides afterwards and check off all of the animals I had seen that day.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZwEdxuljJjRy8S2rI-IdI_oVOejF_LpfLil7eliet6mVR9md85YWYbQ3qBrCUbCxvE7eujuPfHoGhVUNAbJUxNxhA70rqyGh9LmntfGS7iQmvc3k_AyxXNbgWcL3p_HswI7VnRhWGZM/s1600/1426311_10153223935131496_3086367212899367602_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZwEdxuljJjRy8S2rI-IdI_oVOejF_LpfLil7eliet6mVR9md85YWYbQ3qBrCUbCxvE7eujuPfHoGhVUNAbJUxNxhA70rqyGh9LmntfGS7iQmvc3k_AyxXNbgWcL3p_HswI7VnRhWGZM/s320/1426311_10153223935131496_3086367212899367602_n.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I learned so much in Peru about Mother Nature, the life, death, and rebirth of all of the organisms in the rainforest, and about my own connection to, and appreciation of it all. It is a rare opportunity to get to be surrounded by the pure beauty of nature for so long, and I’m so grateful to have gotten to experience it. I’ll never forget this trip and the many friendly faces I met along the way. I have so much to relay from my time there that I’m in the early stages of making a comic book about it. I hope to return some day soon for my art and my spirit.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.suzygonzalez.com/" target="_blank">the website of Suzy Gonzalez here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">For more photos from Suzy's trip to Peru, please go to her <a href="https://www.facebook.com/suzy.gonzalez.31/media_set?set=a.10153260989626496.562391495&type=3" target="_blank">Facebook Album here</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://trelexamazon.blogspot.pe/2016/02/from-min-kim.html" target="_blank">Min Kim's Blog</a> </span></span><br />
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<br />Nina Rodinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07762735401279716079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-11062912763834282702015-08-29T04:33:00.001-07:002015-09-02T05:32:08.574-07:00An artist's book by Michiel Schepers<h4 style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">4.12.2014 - 4.01.2015</span></h4>
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I recently received a book by post which really made my day. It is an account of<a href="http://www.michielschepers.edicypages.com/inspiration" target="_blank"> Michiel Schepers </a>time on the residency with Rainforest Expeditions. The writing is a bit like long aphorisms, at one level disjointed independent paragraphs, yet as a whole so very representative of how one 'looses' oneself in the rainforest, of how difficult it is to stay with any one thought, any one perspective, any one discovery or observation for very long. At the same time it is a sustained effort of obversation of everything between the forest floor and the towering canopy that obscures the sky above.<br />
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This week, Michiel came to visit for a couple of nights- interrupting his planned trip through the alps to answer my invitation. We were so busy together that I forgot to take a picture of the first Artist to have visited the first two Trelex Residencies - something that in and of itself felt like a massive event to me. I am so excited at the potential of Trelex Residencies to build international networks of Artists supporting each other...<br />
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Michiel had a bit of interaction with <a href="http://www.secilerel.com/secil-erel-tuvaller.html" target="_blank">Secil Erel</a> and <a href="http://gizem-unlu.blogspot.ch/" target="_blank">Gizem Ünlü </a>- presently residents at Trelex - but mainly we worked long hours together at tightening up the layout, graphic design, text, organisation and presentation of his book to produce a pdf, available for now on issuu:<br />
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The next step will hopefully be to print this into both a large edition for sale at the Rainforest Lodges shops and a small edition of hand-finished signed artists book for showing in Galleries together with Michiel's huge watercolours from his amazonian residency last year. A typical project for The Trelex Residency. And a brilliant example of how taking a chance on an Artist without any application forms will more often than not produce something of value that surprises both the host and the artist in equal measure - something that couldn't have been planned for without considerable anxiety on both sides of the equation.<br />
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<br />Nina Rodinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07762735401279716079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-2012835466626024502015-06-08T10:50:00.000-07:002015-06-08T10:50:16.225-07:00Nora Schaffer 'Loosing Our Self'<h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">25.03.2014 - 25.03.2015</span></h4>
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Nora Schaffer writes about 'Loosing Our Self' one of the projects she worked on during her time as artist in residence in the Amazon. <br />
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Kristen, my identical twin sister (and my fellow resident), and I have spent most of the last ten years apart. We weren't very close the 18 years we did spend together. And now she's married and living in an entirely different country than myself. So, as we took this journey into the unknown together, it occurred to me this would be one of a few opportunities we'd have to work together as identical twins. <br /><br />My supposition is that twins are not any one thing that can be understood from the perspective of someone that is not a twin. I think how excited one is to realize they are meeting twins or merely telling someone I am a twin is enough to set off a serious of questions: what's it like? are you close? do you like the same things? etc etc you get the picture, my favorite - wanna be in a threesome? So forth, and so forth, that any sort of visual representation of twin, is more often than not, given the likeliness of an artist being an identical twin, fetishizing twin-dom. <br /><br />So. Are we the same person? This is a the type of question that has an obvious answer (we aren't) but makes me wonder whether there is an alternative answer. Is it possible that we could be the same person?<br /><br />For me and Kristen, two very different people and two functionally different artists, it seems unlikely. Looks alone, we're not the most convincing of clones. Kristen is about two inches taller, has a more impressive bosom, and overall a more well-defined facial structure with a prominent chin. I am daintier in size, and softer by appearance. <br /><br />As a photographer attempting to examine a long history of artists fetishizing twins, the way we look next to each other matters. I decided that I'd have to carry out this project under the assumption we pass as identical twins. <br /><br />Under that assumption and the assumption that we were different yet there was a omnipresent question of sameness, I chose to focus on a situation in which there was a potential for the confusion of our individual identities. <br /><br />It just so happens we were on our way to the jungle, which is easy to get lost in. And it seems that loosing ourself is exactly what I wanted to test out.<br /><br />I go into the jungle, or she does, and do we assimilate, loose oneself, find oneself, or become each other? Who am I and who is us? The jungle provides a mysterious, highly textured backdrop for the story. <br /><br />Influences included Ingmar Bergman's PERSONA which features two biologically unrelated actresses who uncannily resemble each other physically as "doubles" who in turn confound and confuse their identities with one another; and the 1510 painting St. George and the Dragon by Albrecht Altdorfer, in which identity (literally) is surrendered to the forest. <br /><br />Working title is "Loosing Our Self" and the following is a selection of unedited sample scans from many 35mm slide still film exposures I took over the course of three weeks in the jungle surrounding the Tambopata Research Center. There is a 50/50 split of self-portraits and portraits of me and my identical twin sister. For book or for gallery, my hope is that the representation of twin is reunited with the question of identity. "Classical Twin Photography" too often looses sight of the potential for subjectivity of the "objects" represented.<br /><br />Following the visual story, perhaps long after the fact and separate from whatever primary presentation is made, will be a grouping of anecdotes of what it's like trying to to make art in the jungle which is filled with an enormous amount of creepy crawly things who all seem to have a creative bent, wanting to involve themselves in the process. Not to mention the oppressive heat which makes trouncing around in a full length, neck-binding, polyester dress akin to hell in all regards. Nor was it great when groups of international tourists would come stumbling across our paths while we were in the middle of changing in and out of dress (as there was only one). And of course using an assistant photographer (Kristen), who has no understanding of how a camera works and in especially a hard study in trying to explain the mere concept of a double exposure, useful to me whatsoever. Save it to say, Kristen was rewarded for her willingness to participate. Unlike the time a friend of mine dawned red wig and jumped into the a extra wide skirt with me one halloween long again, Kristen is and will always be my only identical twin sister.<br />
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<a href="http://www.norasandman.com/">www.norasandman.com</a></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-81637475589131797722015-05-23T09:50:00.000-07:002015-05-23T09:50:18.380-07:00Photographs by Nora SchafferA beautiful <a href="http://www.norasandman.com/index.php?/motionless/dont-try-to/" target="_blank">portfolio of images</a> by Nora Schaffer taken during her time spent on the Trelex Amazon Residency.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693859390487367718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-923613317577223248.post-25611569163505592122015-04-17T05:55:00.003-07:002015-04-17T05:55:59.883-07:00From Nora Schaffer <h4>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">25.03.2014 - 25.03.2015</span></h4>
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C1 is one of our favorite trails. It goes along the river north of the port and then wraps around along the bank of a turquoise creek as far as the big phaicus which is conveniently not that far from the lodge. A nice hour and a half long walk at the artist pace, and our chosen walk for the day. The researchers had a light morning of washing macaw diapers so we extend the offer of diversion. Carla with her machete and Tom with his cameras are happy to join.<br />
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<span class="null">We pause at an open cut in the line of trees guarding the river and begin our inspection. I had taken Tom and Melanie over here for a series of sweetheart photos just yesterday. Kristen, who begrudgingly serves as my second assistant (if she only knew how to read the light meter I'd make her first), spotted a beautiful tree snake just as Tom and Melanie were about to kiss.<br />
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No snakes today. We move on. A bluish fronted jackamar flies into the picture briefly and hope is regained. We exchange stories as we walk knowing full well the forest is listening. Tom is a few steps ahead at the next lookout. My face is following a finely drawn labyrinth of roots when the word otter drifts through my ear.<br />
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"Otter?!"<br />
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"No...well maybe..."<br />
We all lean far over the torn earth to get a glimpse. About forty meters south are ripples spewing across the swift upstream current. <br />
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Without much consideration we run back to the beginning, yesterday's garden of Eden. I'm holding my camera high in one hand and my bag low in the other as I scramble through the vines and roots. I'm the last to arrive. Three sunny backs crouching hand on knee over the edge. I find my place next to them and there he is, the sweetest little face I ever did see.</span><br />
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<span class="null">"Aren't you the cutest wittle thing you ever did see you cute wittle thing."<br />
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(I'm not sure but it almost seems as if he was annoyed we missed him when we first passed).<br />
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Without any hesitation we coo and kiss and devolve into baby talk as this rather oversized otter lifts himself onto the bank about two meters below. His wide toothy grin is useless in putting up that barrier you'd usually place between yourself and carnivorous jungle creatures. Pretty soon we're belly down on the ground reaching out to him.<br />
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After a series of urgent calls on the Walkie talkie we finally have what's left of the research team gathered. Our new four-footed friend is pawing below us on the bank. He gives us a chance to take a few more videos and snorts goodbye before slinking back into the river. Devastation found its why into our eyes as his bobbing head drifts away.</span><br />
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Goodbye dear friend!<br />
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He's halfway to the river's other side. He turns to us and smiles. We break into enormous applause, crying, jumping up and down. I've never clapped my hands so hard. We don't stop. And nor does he. It's that moment when the Seabiscuits of the world pull ahead into first place. Pure Pride. Our otter is coming home.<br />
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Kneeing on the soft mud to welcome him, we tell him how much we love him and how much we never want him to go and he barks and whines and we know he feels the same.<br />
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That was yesterday. We still miss our otter. We've named him Percy even though the hard overnight rains mean that Percy has moved onto another scene of his life.<br />
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It's not the first time we've anthropomorphize the jungle wildlife. There is Wendy, the mouse opossum, who visits us at night. It's easier to believe there is just one Wendy. There is Tortellini the golden-toed tortoise, who talks very slowly of course. There are all the many Macaws. Mandy Lu and Chechewy love to take Selfies and the naughty Tabasco only likes the creamy center of Oreos. The monkeys don't have names, but they are definitely like you and me, perhaps just better at jumping.<br />
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Perhaps. Perhaps it's like this for some parents. We cannot help reflect something in ourselves unto the very young, innocent ones. Until they can talk our language, I'm pretty sure that we will continue to provide them with personas not of their choosing. We could also go into a discussion of racial superiority and/discrimination towards people with disabilities, but we'll save that discussion for later....<br />
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One thing is for sure, we are patronizing the species we talk down to, because somewhere we got it into our heads that these animals have less than a two-year-old's cognitive ability. I look at Darwin. His principal of natural selection admits that all species are equal to each other, a utopia without hierarchy. He wrote just short of including humans in this equation. But I believe in my heart that he thinks no higher of human's evolution than he did of his finches'. It is because we, as humans, believe that we are smarter than these animals, especially the cute ones. The challenge we face is learning to speak Otter, Opossum, Tortoise, Macaw and Monkey.<br />
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Is this a problem we need to fix? Does it hurt anyone to draw sketches of "parrot divorce court". Or design jungle animal emoticons? Or write our latest animal Yelp reviews? Should we stop creating memes of cute cats? Or even giving names and voices to our animals unless they can give their express consent? Do these animals even mind? Etc, etc...<br />
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For the moment, I'm am going to continue to finger paint an army of red-coated Macaws.<br />
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Tambopata provides the setting for this reflection, a place where species so specialized as the Taragana fire ant and the Tapir remind us they are just has highly evolved and superior as we are. And it just makes you ask, "what they think of us?"</span><br />
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