Now 5 of our 6 inaugural residents on hiatus have finished or left their residency, leaving with us earnest and brilliant “final reports” — please read them on each artist’s page. While RFAOH is busy preparing for the next round during this quiet time, so is our last resident Milena Kosec, working on her organic gardens. If you have liked our year 1, please help us keep going by spreading word about this amazing international collaboration!
In the beginning of the month sunrise is at 5.15 am and sundown at 20.46 pm. At the end of the month a day is 15.43 hours long. At the beginning it was too dry for this month. Temperatures were from 13C in the morning to 33C in the afternoon. But last three weeks are colder (from 10C to about 20C or more) with enough rain.
Now I use new method: I pulled out the weeds and leave it on the beds as mulch, less work with double effect.
New plants in my garden: Brussels sprouts, curly kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala), cabbage lettuce (enough also for friends).
To get new plants I have sown Castelfranco radicchio, endive and Florence fennel (finocchio – Foeniculum vulgare).
For eating I still have spring lettuce, radish, turnip-cabbage, leek, cress, chervil, parsley and strawberries. Season harvest are peas, broccoli and winter garlic. This month I can eat the first potato, broad bean, Catalonian radicchio and carrot.
Turnip-cabbage, broccoli and peas I freeze for later use. I braid winter garlic and hang it on dry air for later use.
Simple and healthy recipe: Millet porridge with peas: 400g proso millet porridge, 200g peas, 6 dl vegetable soup (or water), 2 spoons olive oil, garlic and salt. We roast peas on olive oil. Then we add garlic, millet porridge and soup. We cook all together. At the end we add salt.
mmm, all looks delicious Milena!! (maybe no the bugs) - but the beans and broccoli are surely tasty.
Art Fair Challenge
“as soon as art becomes a badge of social membership, its potential for critical action is eroded”*
Besides the celebrity talk, this Chapman brother’s quote is a good one; it stirs up our own complex feelings towards (pathetic) elitism while opening up in all dimensions another current discussion on “art bringing the public together”, “art for everyone”, and ultimately “everyone is an artist”. Apparently, contemporary art fairs are now shoulder to shoulder with “B-grade gourmet” as an attraction to induce the economic revitalization of an area in Japan. In the West, many are saying that the art fairs and biennials are killing art. Meanwhile, there’s this contest we could enter to raise funds..
As in her last post, Karen Zalamea has decided to leave her 8 month on-hiatus residency 2 months early, to resume her art practice with unexpected support she has received. Karen’s case brings another interesting dimension to the notion of hiatus — what if you had an idea for an art project but you could not proceed with it due to the lack of funds; while you are waiting for the support to come or working to earn it, are we on hiatus? And what if you never obtain these funds and therefore the idea never gets realized?
We thank karen for her participation as our inaugural resident, with her attempt to experience leisure for leisure sake. RFAOH sincerely wishes her the best of luck for her post on-hiatus life.
Click “Final Report” to read on her experience at RFAOH.
After much deliberation, I have decided to withdraw from RFAOH and end my leisure-based hiatus as of May 31st. I was fortunate to receive a grant to produce a new project, and after considering postponing its start date to complete my residency, I’ve decided that now is the right time to resume my art practice. These past six months have been a generative period of reflection on my artistic production and identity, on what constitutes research, on the luxury of time and getting away from it all, and on my general well-being.
My boundless gratitude to the RFAOH directors, Shinobu and Matt, for their tireless efforts in facilitating this experience, and for inviting me to participate along with a group of diverse and thought-provoking residents from around the world.
Oh! Thank you for interesting photos.
Enjoy in new project.
shinobu wrote on Jun 3:
Best of luck from our office, Karen! Milena and we will miss you (:
Final week in May
The final week of May brought with it a few regular activities, some art-related events, and a couple new experiments: – A float session in a sensory deprivation tank, which I’ve been doing once a month with varying tank experiences, from deep relaxation to mild distraction. – A couple ballet classes which were, as usual, physically challenging. My instructor always says, “Ballet is about turning your body inside-out.” Nothing natural about that. – I attended two artist talks, one with Stan Douglas at the Presentation House Gallery, and the other with Matthew Higgs at the Western Front. – Inspired by Milena’s garden reports, I decided to plant a few French beans in some planters on my deck. They’ve already sprouted and grown about four inches in the past week. I’m hoping they’ll eventually wrap themselves around the wooden trellis installed against the deck railing and make a solid wall of greenery and hanging beans.
– I was invited to a photobook gathering. A small group of local photographers regularly get together and share books from their collections. It was exciting flipping through some limited edition publications I’ve never seen before. In my lap is one of my favourite discoveries of the night, Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs’ “The Great Unreal.”
– Last night I went to EXIT, a game facility that locks participants in a themed room from which they must escape by solving challenges and riddles within 45 minutes. These kinds of real life escape room experiences have been popping up around town and are inspired by escape room video games popularized in Japan. Our group was in the Ancient Egypt room, and although we managed to figure out a few combination locks and find clues in the sand, we failed to complete the game before the time ran out.
shinobu wrote on Jul 1:
Yay, another mention in Home Vegetable Garden News! http://paper.li/permafrog/1324577102
Matt wrote on Jun 30:
mmm, all looks delicious Milena!! (maybe no the bugs) - but the beans and broccoli are surely tasty.