170 applications from across the Commonwealth were received for the 2010 arts residencies. Nine international judges in the five regions carried out a rigorous judging process before announcing the six winners at the end of June.
Africa
Danda Jaroljmek
Danda has a BA in Public Art and is a practising artists as well as currently the Director of Kuona Trust, a non-profit visual arts organisation, registered in 1995 in Kenya which provides studios, training, exhibitions and international exchange opportunities for Kenyan and international artists. Kuona is closely affiliated to the Triangle Arts Trust and Danda acts as regional coordinator for the African Network, dispursing funds, organising regional meetings and advising on programming for the 14 organisations in Africa.
Erica Elk
Erica Elk is the executive director of the Cape Craft & Design Institute which she was employed to establish in November 2001. The CCDI was set up to promote and grow craft as an economic sector in the Western Cape province of South Africa. A writer, designer and artist, Erica graduated with a BA Fine Art degree from Wits University where she is currently registered for her MAFA. Erica serves on the curator panel of the Design Indaba Expo and the Creative Cape Town Reference Group and is a board member of the Western Cape chapter of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa.
Bisi Silva
Bisi Silva is an independent curator and the founder/director of Centre for Contemporary Art,Lagos (CCA,Lagos). She was co-curator for the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece, ‘Praxis:Art in Times of Uncertainty’ (2009). In 2008 she was co-selector of the prestigious international Artists’ Prize, Artes Mundi 3 in Wales, UK. In 2006 Silva co-curated the Dakar Biennale, Senegal. In May 2010 Silva was the inaugural touring curator for the pilot programme ‘moving’ curators and ideas around the US by Independent Curators International (ICI New York).
Asia
Naiza H Khan
Naiza lives and works in Karachi. She is currently ‘Visiting Curator’ at the Mohatta Palace Museum. Her recent exhibitions include: ‘Restore the Boundaries: the Manora Project, Rossi & Rossi at ArtDubai 2010, and ‘Hanging Fire: contemporary art from Pakistan’ at Asia Society NY 2009. Naiza is one of the founding members of the Vasl Artists’ Collective (part of the Triangle Network) and has been Fine Art Faculty member at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi (1991 – 2008). She graduated from Somerville College, the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University.
Sunil Gupta
Sunil Gupta was born in Delhi, India, in 1953. He later moved to Canada with his family, where his growing interest in photography was fuelled by Montreal art cinema. In 1983 Sunil studied for an MA at the Royal College of Art in London and during the 1980s he was involved in the founding of Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers, in London. Sunil has worked as a video maker, photographer, curator, writer, administrator and academic. His work highlights issues of race, gender and sexuality. He currently divides his time between London and Delhi.
Yeoh Kean Thai
Sculptor, painter and installation artist, as well as an art teacher, Yeoh KeanThai travelled to Sri Lanka in 2009 on a Commonwealth Connections arts residency. In particular in his work he has been concerned with the aesthetic value of metal and rust to communicate concerns on environment, human health and quality of life. His artworks have been included in many major exhibitions in Malaysia and South Korea, and his pieces are held in a number of significant public and private art collections.
Caribbean
Christopher Cozier
Christopher Cozier is an artist and writer living and working in Trinidad. He has participated in a number of exhibitions focused upon contemporary art in the Caribbean and internationally. Since 1989 he has published a range of essays on related issues in a number of catalogues and journals. He is on the editorial collective of Small Axe, a Caribbean Journal of Criticism, published and distributed by the Indiana University Press ( www.smallaxe.net) and a member of the board of Alice Yard, a contemporary arts space in Port of Spain. Christopher has taught at various institutions and works in collaboration with a number of younger developing artists, designers and illustrators. His work has consisted of multimedia projects, involving sound, video, live performances and installations, including drawings, constructions and appropriated objects
Canada and Europe
John Phillips
John is director of the londonprintstudio, (previously called Paddington Printshop), which he co-founded in 1974. During the past thirty years his creative practice has blended community activism with fine and graphic arts. John’s professional practice combines writing and image making including: drawing, traditional printmaking and digital media. His current research interest explores the social life of paper. John frequently works collaboratively with other artists and communities.
www.londonprintstudio.org.uk
www.globalprintstudios.org
Pacific
Susan Cochrane
Susan has an international reputation as a curator of contemporary art from the Pacific region, engaging with artists, scholars and cultural institutions in Australia and Pacific islands nations to raise the visibility of Pacific art through major exhibitions and international arts events. Throughout her career as an independent curator and consultant for Australian museums and art galleries and the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Susan has made an important contribution to the literature on Pacific art as an author and editor of books, catalogue essays and articles, including Art and Life in Melanesia.