A bit about artist's residencies
I've decided that I really should be writing more about my travel experiences properly. I've already lost most of my photos from my trips in the last year to the States, Spain, Morocco and even China (hard drive crashed - very hard to talk about).
I didn't write nearly as much as I would have liked about my time living in the village. It was a hard and wonderful experience and thank God I had a friend with me who I can refer to about my experiences there (my memory gets a blurry at times and this is also why the lost photos are an extra blow). I didn't write in part out of laziness and in part out of fear and also because I suddenly started to shut down and wanted to stop sharing anything about me out there. This too, in part is something innate in me and also in part because I was told I share too much of myself online and maybe I wanted to be more private. In short there were many parts that stopped me from writing about my travels, that led to the decision to have this more of a visual blog with just excerpts and quotes and random thoughts and photos that expressed a little of what was going on in my mind.
I don't doubt I will feel the urge to take this post down soon after I publish it because I find it too revealing - to write like this - like a diary entry almost, addressing some other invisible person on the other side of the screen. I know how people lock other people into their words.
I feel as an opening in sharing something about my travel experiences I should speak a little about artist's residencies which I think are the most wonderful thing in the world. I've been for two so far - one in rural upstate New York and one in a hotel in Shanghai. I was also accepted for one in a dancer's village in Bangalore but I had to withdraw from that one at the last minute, although I really wish I could have gone.
For someone like me, who has lived, studied and grown up with my family in Durban in a small and fairly conservative community all my life, this kind of opportunity has been out of this world. It still blows my mind that there are institutions out there that take you to another country, care for you, even pay you to live in a beautiful studio or house for months just so that you can produce a piece of art. Yes, of course artists need space and time to produce things that real life may never give you the space or opportunity to do, but no one expects anyone to just... give it to them. It blows my mind that there are places like this where you are given the luxury of time and space to work on your dream.
So not only do you get to have time to work just on your project, you also get to see a different country (often for free, depending if the residency offers travel) and you get to live with talented musicians, architects, visual artists, composers, poets, writers etc. from around the world. You get to interact with new people and share ideas. And it truly blows open the world in new and wonderful ways.
I recently spent 6 months in China working on my new novel, Paper Flowers. I had a huge live-in studio overlooking the Bund in a hotel that was built in 1906 and I lived with an array of artists from Italy, Switzerland, Russia, France, Portugal, Argentina, Denmark, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Belgium and so on. We had breakfast together, has discussions, arguments, went to exhibitions, restaurants, plays and parties. Living in the heart of China's biggest city was an eye opening experience. I met new people, had new experiences and learned a lot about who I was. You feel seemingly cut off from everything not only because you cannot understand the language anywhere but because you're also cut off from the rest of the world (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, New York Times etc. is all banned in China). It was also the longest time I had lived away from home and that itself was a whole different experience.
This of course, is a very short story to a very long experience (that sometimes felt like it was never ending). Artist's residencies are ridiculously amazing. For me, they are heaven on earth - in one swoop they combine everything I want: travel, new friends, work, leisure, experience, knowledge, freedom, space and good food. Most importantly they offer you time, which we all know is a luxury. For me, residencies are the most fantastic thing in the world. There are stories about people stealing from one another, hating each another, loving one another and growing together. Some of the loveliest friendships I have made this part year are from my residencies. It's easy to bond when you're living in a foreign country together (easier to fight too). At the the dinners I think I am the most quiet; just watching all the minds working as they talk and laugh and argue and discuss politics or literature or art under a foreign night sky.
Artist residencies are outrageous. They are outrageous and wonderful and crazy.
I didn't write nearly as much as I would have liked about my time living in the village. It was a hard and wonderful experience and thank God I had a friend with me who I can refer to about my experiences there (my memory gets a blurry at times and this is also why the lost photos are an extra blow). I didn't write in part out of laziness and in part out of fear and also because I suddenly started to shut down and wanted to stop sharing anything about me out there. This too, in part is something innate in me and also in part because I was told I share too much of myself online and maybe I wanted to be more private. In short there were many parts that stopped me from writing about my travels, that led to the decision to have this more of a visual blog with just excerpts and quotes and random thoughts and photos that expressed a little of what was going on in my mind.
I don't doubt I will feel the urge to take this post down soon after I publish it because I find it too revealing - to write like this - like a diary entry almost, addressing some other invisible person on the other side of the screen. I know how people lock other people into their words.
I feel as an opening in sharing something about my travel experiences I should speak a little about artist's residencies which I think are the most wonderful thing in the world. I've been for two so far - one in rural upstate New York and one in a hotel in Shanghai. I was also accepted for one in a dancer's village in Bangalore but I had to withdraw from that one at the last minute, although I really wish I could have gone.
For someone like me, who has lived, studied and grown up with my family in Durban in a small and fairly conservative community all my life, this kind of opportunity has been out of this world. It still blows my mind that there are institutions out there that take you to another country, care for you, even pay you to live in a beautiful studio or house for months just so that you can produce a piece of art. Yes, of course artists need space and time to produce things that real life may never give you the space or opportunity to do, but no one expects anyone to just... give it to them. It blows my mind that there are places like this where you are given the luxury of time and space to work on your dream.
So not only do you get to have time to work just on your project, you also get to see a different country (often for free, depending if the residency offers travel) and you get to live with talented musicians, architects, visual artists, composers, poets, writers etc. from around the world. You get to interact with new people and share ideas. And it truly blows open the world in new and wonderful ways.
I recently spent 6 months in China working on my new novel, Paper Flowers. I had a huge live-in studio overlooking the Bund in a hotel that was built in 1906 and I lived with an array of artists from Italy, Switzerland, Russia, France, Portugal, Argentina, Denmark, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Belgium and so on. We had breakfast together, has discussions, arguments, went to exhibitions, restaurants, plays and parties. Living in the heart of China's biggest city was an eye opening experience. I met new people, had new experiences and learned a lot about who I was. You feel seemingly cut off from everything not only because you cannot understand the language anywhere but because you're also cut off from the rest of the world (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, New York Times etc. is all banned in China). It was also the longest time I had lived away from home and that itself was a whole different experience.
This of course, is a very short story to a very long experience (that sometimes felt like it was never ending). Artist's residencies are ridiculously amazing. For me, they are heaven on earth - in one swoop they combine everything I want: travel, new friends, work, leisure, experience, knowledge, freedom, space and good food. Most importantly they offer you time, which we all know is a luxury. For me, residencies are the most fantastic thing in the world. There are stories about people stealing from one another, hating each another, loving one another and growing together. Some of the loveliest friendships I have made this part year are from my residencies. It's easy to bond when you're living in a foreign country together (easier to fight too). At the the dinners I think I am the most quiet; just watching all the minds working as they talk and laugh and argue and discuss politics or literature or art under a foreign night sky.
Artist residencies are outrageous. They are outrageous and wonderful and crazy.
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