FreePaper - Rodell Warner's Pictures, Drawings Etc.

2012-01-24T03:52:00.001-08:00

Some photos from Small Talk, courtesy Mack Magagane at Market Photo Workshop.

Small Talk on Wednesday

2012-01-16T21:58:00.001-08:00

***EDIT: Time changed to 18H00

Common Room - Opening Night

2012-01-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

These images are from the opening night of 'Common Room' at Nirox Projects at Arts on Main on Tuesday. The exhibition is part of my Commonwealth Connections residency programme and also follows my residency exchange at the 12 Decades Hotel at Main Street Life.

The intention of the show is to use these projects to make a kind of snapshot of public-public communication at this moment in Johannesburg. All of the pieces on show - JHB Closer, JHB Cc: Everybody, Tr. 2.0 using JHB dialects, and the Risk zine and performance - all deal with how we're talking to each other in public right now, whether non-verbally on the street, in personal advertisements, in what informmation is shared for free publicly, or in common legal signage and policy, which holds a lot of information on how we see and do ourselves and each other here.

Putting this exhibition together would have been impossible without the help of so many friends and colleagues who were generous with their time, skills and resources, and particularly Molemo Moiloa and Murray Kruger who I can't thank enough for their support and involvement.

For now I'll share pictures from the event and installation views of the work, and detail the individual projects later in subsequent posts.

Photos of opening night by Michael 'Mack' Magagane.

disclaimer at entrance

murray kruger trading risk zine

movement installation for Tr. 2.0

Download 'RiskZine'

2012-01-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

Click Here to jump to digital RiskZine.

In Johannesburg, get your physical copy for R1 from 18H00 today at the 'Common Room' exhibition at Nirox Projects, Arts on Main.

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An Invitation

2011-12-25T01:50:00.000-08:00

click image to enlarge

It's my pleasure to invite you to the exhibition "Common Room", a reflection on public to public communication at Nirox Projects, Arts on Main on Tuesday January 10th, 2012.

I will be showing new work from the projects 'Closer' and 'Cc: Everybody', a new zine and related performance (a collaboration with Murray Kruger) and other new works, collaborations and experiments, concieved during my residency here in Joburg.

A digital version of 'Riskzine' will be available free for download on the day of the exhibition at www.rodellwarner.com and updates and related content will be posted on this blog.

Please feel free to share this invitation with others and to contact me (rodell.warner@gmail.com) with any questions or comments.

Hope to see you there.

Keep Good,
Rodell

Zine Workshop

2011-12-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

During layout on day one. L-R: Dahlia, Biko, Molemo, Sibusiso and Sicelo.

Day two: Biko, Dahlia and Sbu assembling their zines.

These are some images from a two day zine workshop I gave at the beginning of the December @ Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg. I've been using zines a lot in my practice for the better part of this year and as a way to make something physical/non-digital that shares work or transfers ideas, i find it extremely valuable now. I've even made one here in SA that's functioning not just as an end in itself but as the focal point for a larger collaborative project.

So the idea for this workshop was to basically share everything I know about low cost self publishing, get people excited about the possibilities of it by showing my own zines and the work of other artists and photographers who work with zines (the participants were all photographers) and, as the main exercise of the workshop, have everyone go through the process of producing their own zine.

Long story short, the workshop was excellent. I think it was really a pleasure for all of us to go through learning different things together. Mostly it made me think about doing at home what I've been trying to do in SA. On this residency I've been very concerned with finding ways to share and be useful and make things that are valuable to people here, and I'm very much measuring the success of my trip in those terms. Doing this workshop I thought 'Why am I not like this at home?'. And just asking the question opened up a map of things I want to do when I get back, and made me think of all the people at home who are concerned with actively sharing and making the place richer and more fertile, and really makes me want to join that list.

Again, sincerest thanks to Photo Workshop for facilitating, and especially to Bafana, Biko and Molemo who worked to put this workshop together.

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Sicelo Khumalo: Time, Space and a Bicycle

Sibusiso Nhlapo: Familiar to Millions

Dahlia Maubane: My Friend

Biko Molobye: Makweteng (Back)

Everyone's zines. L-R: Sbu, Biko, Sicelo, Dahlia

ours + mine

2011-11-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

i realised something a little while after getting to jozi, during or after a conversation with i cant remember who or about exactly what.. i can think of things this way: there are two kinds of information - one is all of our shared knowledge - all of our history, current events, everything we can see together or have access to. the other is all the things that only i, the individual, can imagine or dream.. what can only occur in a particular way to me, because of the very particular combination of things that make my experience. presenting either of these bits in isolation may not be the best way to share information. the former can be boring; 'who cares that i'm presenting this? everyone already has access to this information'. the latter can be confusing; 'who can understand this? only i have access to this information'. the most interesting thing i can possibly create & present is a combination of these things. a combination of familiar information and something an audience would never have imaginied is something that people can understand/connect to and at the same time be absolutely surprised by because, with the addition of only what i can imagine, it never would have occured to them to see it that way.

this has become a kind of guideline for me here, to apply to art-making but also to living. i have met people here who are living intensely, excitedly, because what they are making themselves, given what they 'should'/are expected to be, is new to everyone around them. given everyone's shared history and knowledge plus what these individuals' particular imaginations of what they can be is, what they are making and presenting themseves as is not something people have imagined/expected before.

as it applies to things im making, its changing the way i look at documentary work. so i thought 'documentation can only be interesting if what's being documented is genuinely something people havent seen before'. zen marie adds 'or if you're showing people something in a way they haven't seen before'. which resonates with the same 'what is known by everyone + what only the individual knows'.

with that in mind i've changed my 'lady chancellor' work. the images now are altered to suggest more of what i imagine about them, and the kind of information they hold and can suggest, instead of representing only information that was available to everone passing on lady chancellor road - though acknowledging that presenting the images as they were, as a group that can be viewed together in one place, as opposed to the way they come to be in real life - with much more time and distance between them - did already change the way they were made available to everyone. and, as dave mentioned months ago, also changed as recorded by my particular eye/intention/method. still i feel this new change adds another layer, making it more of something not before imagined by others, but still accessible to others and so more interesting.

also i realised in another moment that the only point of anything can only be to make a moment interesting, so it is the only thing in life thats important. and maybe only more important, and more interesting, is to make a moment interesting not just for myself, but to make a moment interesting for others / as many others as possible..

click here to see the updated 'lady chancellor' images

also, later today i'll update the site again with images from this year's erotic art week 'photobooth'

-rodell

From 'Introduction'

2011-11-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

These are some images from the presentation I made last Thursday @ Market Photo Workshop, in Newtown, Johannesburg. The intention was really to say hello and to show and talk about the process of making some of my recent zines and photo projects. The audience was made up mainly of photograpers and photography students and educators, and with some discussion, some questioning and some answering, I think it became a really valuable exchange for all of us.

Sincerest thanks to Photo Workshop for hosting this and also to Biko for the pics.

-Rodell

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photos courtesy Tefo Biko Onkgopotse
click to enlarge.

Hello

2011-11-08T06:06:00.000-08:00

A chance to share my photos with my generous hosts & the students @ Market Photo Workshop, and all the lovely, activated people I've been meeting in Joburg over the last two weeks.

click image to enlarge

Eye to Eye

2011-11-08T05:21:00.000-08:00

These are some installation shots from "Eye to Eye", an exhibition of Trinidadian photography in Jamaica curated by O'Neil Lawrence at the Edna Manley CAG[e] gallery. The exhibition featured work by Abigail Hadeed, Alex Smailes, and my "Closer" - a set of photos of people in Port of Spain, asked to stand for a photo with a stranger and to make eye contact.

During the last week of October, I also participated in a group discussion about the project with O'Neil and his students in Kingston via skype from Johannesburg.

More images and information about the show is available here from ARC magazine.

Thanx to O'Neil for the photos.

Tr.

2011-10-22T05:38:00.000-07:00

In Port of Spain and in the towns going east, and around, the only information we share publicly and is given for free and is made part of our visual environment is advertising and religious material.

Messages are personally, individually given to people occasionally during advertising 'activations' by private companies and daily by people of various faiths through the use of 'tracts' - small, pamphlet-type informational things intended to share ideas - handed out around town in places with a lot of pedestrian Tr.affic.

To introduce and share another kind of information with the people walking around town I made some tracts and with the help of some friends, distributed them in Woodford Square yesterday afternoon.

This first set of Tr.acts - three different ones, each printed on its own colour fluorescent paper - shares ideas from thinkers and writers from all over the world and from different periods over the last few centuries, basically about what it means to be human and about living. The information is 'quotes' from these thinkers and writers but carefully translated from their original forms, which feel foreign to me or like they require Tr.anslation before I can relate the ideas in them to my life in Tr.inindad, into trini dialect.

I did this with Kwasi Shade and Brianna McCarthy volunteering their time and attention to help share, and, to keep it short, we got into all kinds of discussions with people from all walks, everybody passionately sharing their own Tr.uths and talking about these fellas' ideas, which was really valuable. Together we shared about three hundred pieces.

I'm posting some related images below and also making the Tr.acts available as downloadable pdf's for you - laid out, ready to print and photocopy, 3-up on a letter size page with crop marks so you can easily produce and share them too.

I will do this again with new Tr.acts in the future, probably around February. This weekend I'm leaving for a three month residency in South Africa. This action was a really beautiful note to leave on.

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Download: TR.ACT 1 (Tzu, Kaufman, Dostoyevsky) || TR.ACT 2 (Boyd, Eco, Rochefoucauld) || TR.ACT 3 (Fromm, Levi, Frankl)

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2011-10-15T04:02:00.000-07:00

Photobooth III at Erotic Art Week 2011

2011-10-05T05:13:00.000-07:00

Eyy. Here are some images from this year's 'Photobooth' installation at the third annual Erotic Art Week. These are all self-portraits, shot using a wireless remote control, of visitors to Erotic Art Week's main gallery @ Bohemia. Participants are given the privacy of the booth to make their portraits and the images are shared with their signed consent.

For the third year in a row, I really have to thank Brianna, Victor, and Dave for their invaluable help with setting up and managing the photobooth.

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Earlier this year, images from Photobooth 2010 were shown in Joy Wai Gallery's inaugural exhibition "Whose Self Portrait: The Subject Behind The Camera" in New York City.

See images from photobooth 2010 and 2009.

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"Cc: Everybody" cont'd at Erotic Art Week 2011

2011-10-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

Cc: Everybody is a project by Brianna McCarthy and myself in which tiny black & white classified ads from the local daily newspapers are reproduced, word for word, on huge, colourful, hand-painted 'party signs' (a traditional style of guerilla advertising used here to blast event details to everyone passing in the street ["Cc-ing" everybody]).

The intention is to play with the varying levels of intended 'publicness' of the classifieds to try and open up discussion about their changing appearance, and to document the change. Are we cool with this being public info? If yes, is it okay to blast these messages louder than their original size, or can we only say it so loud? A decade ago, ads like these didn't exist, so there's actually a lot of information in them about how we're communicating with each other right now.

The title of each piece is the date it was published and the newspaper it was published in. These two are "Trindad Guardian, 20 April, 2011" (Text…) and "Daily Express Classifieds, 20 APR, 2011" (Gaza…).

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A note on the change in process/aesthetic in making last year's signs compared to these new ones:

Last year's signs, if you're familiar with the incredibly skilfully painted street signs popularised by Bruce Cayone, possibly seemed a little inauthentic. Maybe they fell into the uncanny valley because, try as we did, given our level of experience making signs, they were no Cayones. This year we realised that instead of speaking a less-than-fluent version of that language, we would embrace our own dialect/tools/skills and produce what would still be recognised by any trini as a party sign, but maybe just another/newer kind. This version does away with horizontal color banding in favour of vertical, textured washes and introduces the use of ornament in the form of lino prints, metallic inks and gold dust in addition to the traditional emulsion. The lettering is also much improved. We are extremely pleased with the movement.

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installation/detail views:

'Carnival Skin' at Erotic Art Week 2011

2011-10-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

baby, from ur eyes u can tell these r carnival pictures, fete pictures. very familiar. the exercise here was to fancy print them and mount and install and present them in a gallery as 'erotic art'. to alter the way u might approach lookin at them? to offer a means of noticing other details?

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Photobooth Friday /// LAS LAP TONIGHT

2011-09-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the last night of Erotic Art Week and ur last chance to visit PHOTOBOOTH. Tell ur friends! See u later

-Rodell

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Artzpub Minute: Episode 4: Rodell Warner on "Mordern Range"

2011-09-20T03:06:00.000-07:00

ARTZPUB MINUTE: EPISODE 4 RODELL WARNER from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

Mordern Range _ 02

2011-09-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sisters & Brothers, download the digital version of Mordern Range #2 here or claim your free physical copy by sending a self addressed stamped envelope to this address:

Rodell Warner
P.O. Box 1501
92A Wrightson Road, P.O.S
Trinidad, W.I

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& if u missed it, here's digital Mordern Range #1. More to come, once we alive

Strenk & Powers?
One is one.

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Mordern Range is a not-no-random mash-up via Trini visual culture? A small collection of captured sights and found & copied images.

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Frederick Street photos in 'Forever Forged. Forever Becoming' group show in London

2011-08-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

Very excited to tell you. Some of my Frederick Street photos will be shown in 'Forever Forged. Forever Becoming.', an exhibition of contemporary works by 20 established and emerging visual artists & photographers from 13 countries that investigates representations of 'Caribbeanness'.

The exhibition, curated by Holly Bynoe, is at Bargehouse. Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street South Bank, London, from September 9th to 25th and is presented by ARC Magazine in collaboration with the African and African Caribbean Design Diaspora Festival.

Here's the full release on ARC's website.

Territorio Desdibujado 2.0 / Curaduría Eliseo Solís Mora / 11 Velada de Santa Lucía / Layout Diseño Gráfico Luis Brito

2011-08-25T04:23:00.001-07:00

Blurred Territory 2.0 / Curated by Eliseo Solís Mora / 11 Velada de Santa Lucía / Layout, Graphic Design by Luis Brito.

a wrap up of the group show in Maracaibo, Venezuela, March 2011. I showed drawings from "Maker: Self" and improvised performance with Michelle Isava and Eliseo Solís Mora. There were almost one hundred people's self portraits in the show.

too bad I cant translate the rest :]

via: territoriodesdibujado.blogspot.com

click images to enlarge

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2011-08-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

something ive been thinking about for some time, and looking for the right way to make it look. this is what i thought it should look like last year. big thanx to melissa doughty.

2011-07-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

we work in the moment, and we work it in.

Mordern Range _ 01

2011-07-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Eyy. This is a zine i made. A small collection of images i stole, found, played wit, made.

'mordern range' cus im really thinkin abt the range of trinidad/(self) images available to us right now. extreme i find, but not wide at all.

these pictures are ways we presented ourselves or have been presented, for all kindsa reasons, re-purposed here for documentation and mirror vibes and discussion and kicks.

so i wanta give u. i made abt 50 copies last week. if u mail me a self addressed, stamped envelope i'll send u a physical copy. and/or you could download it here. the size is just under 8.5 x x5.5 inches so the envelope would have to be big enough to fit that.

i wanta make more episodes, and with more to chew per shot, but like i say the range not so wide so it might be a while till i feel i find enough gold to make a good one.

tave plenty things i wanta tell u but is pictures so i doh wanta talk too much.
watch the ting na an leh me hush my mout

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send a self addressed stamped envelope (here's how to do this) to:

Rodell Warner
P.O. Box 1501
92A Wrightson Road, P.O.S
Trinidad, W.I

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Maker: Self (Cont'd)

2011-06-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

this morning i updated my site to include this project. check it here

rodell_warner - maker_self - 24APR11a

rodell_warner - maker_self - 20APR11a

2011-06-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

jus fuh fun & contrast :] but not as fun as this
copy by client

click to enlarge

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Frederick Street Zine

2011-06-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

these are going to be available for sale at an alternative market / garage sale event on the weekend and will offset the cost of putting the images back on the street.

edition of 25 + 2 proofs. 21 images. b/w, xerox on 20lb bond paper. 5.75 x 7.25 inches. initialed/dated and numbered on the back.
priced @ $15.00

a soon as i get the exact when and where info for the sale i will edit this post to include it.

see u there.
-rodell

***EDIT***

zines available at this alternative market event tomorrow (saturday 24th june 2011)
feel free to bring things to sell or trade, is all about exchange and putting unused things to good use.

#17 henry pierre street, woodbrook, pos.

bless

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related post: frederick street pictures

Frederick Street Pictures

2011-06-13T18:49:00.001-07:00

during the first week of june i made some pictures on frederick street in port of spain using a camera hidden in a box, without looking through the viewfinder or at the display. reviewing the pictures i caught, i think i really saw what was the collective feeling of the people passing.

to return the images to frederick street / share the pictures with the people in the pictures, i put together some of the ones that i thought best communicated what i saw and installed them on frederick street, not far from where they had been taken, definitely in the path of the people in the pictures.

below are some of the images i caught and some pictures of the installation.

-rodell

(click to enlarge)

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2011-06-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

click on the pictures. they'll get bigger & look better

Rodell Warner Awarded Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency

2011-05-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/Howwedeliver/Prizes/CommonwealthConnections/2011winners

Press Release - Whose Self-Portrait? The Subject Behind The Camera

2011-05-03T04:34:00.000-07:00

Hey. Two images from 'Photobooth' will be shown in this exhibition, which opens tomorrow at Joy Wai Gallery in New York. They are framed archival C-Prints, the only prints made of this work thus far, and are available for purchase. To view the work in this private preview please make contact with the gallery. All details are below. Hit this link to the gallery's event page or click the image below to enlarge.

-Rodell

From Joy Wai Gallery:

Whose self-portrait? The Subject Behind the Camera

For our exhibition, we are honored to showcase the works of nineteen talented, international photographers selected through an open call.

The overwhelming frontier of new technology demands a constant and deep reflection on the status of the image, especially the codes that are embedded in the medium of photography. Though the process of recording light, through film or sensor, has basically remained consistent from its inception, creating pictures is now a more complex affair. Photography involves techniques and ideas drawn from many fields, such as architecture, cinematography, fashion, design, and craft. There is a cross-pollination occurring where photography becomes the deposit site for ideas that are in constant flux and collision.

Because of the proliferation of new possibilities, the interaction with the image has changed. The genre of self-portraiture allows a particularly deep introspection into the changing nature between the subject/object and production of imagery. The collection of work showcased in this exhibition draws upon former codes of beauty; there is a suggested lack of self-consciousness and an avid attention paid to the surface of the photograph. Though self-portraiture is referential, we observe here an ambiguity now prevalent in its vocabulary. The traditional codes of photography are here revised and enriched by digitalization, abstraction, tableau, and appropriation. Composition, framing and light are employed to reveal a part of the artists’ persona. The two selves are hence involved on stage, the performer and the creator.

This microcosmic atlas of self gives a glimpse of the possibility of the image to utilize an active voice to engage in dialogue with the viewer. Whose Self-Portrait? The Subject Behind the Camera presents a panorama of artists who intimately explore themselves and their relationship to the medium.

Low Lives 3 - Trinidad is Offline - 29APR11

2011-05-01T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hey. So this is my performance for Low Lives 3, an exhibition of performance works from all over the world curated online by Jorge Rojas where all the performances are streamed live, in succession, via ustream. U can watch below, but will see the entire video frame here.

Video streaming by Ustream
Long idea short - this show is all about internet - less than 17% of Trinidad households are connected to the internet. A live online event - basically nobody in T&T will see you. One way of looking at it is to see the internet is a secret/safe space. I can use it to create and project images that would be considered uncomfortable/unwelcome in Trinidad with little or no consequence because T&T won't see it. This can have many different applications or executions; things that might be considered offensive in Trinidad, confessions, unpopular points of view, even images made simply because they can be, in this space - in this case, the first case, the image of three grown men playing what is typically a young schoolgirls' hand clapping game.

I intend to create/perform/invite other instances of use of this free/secret space with other live events via this ustream channel. Thats the project.

I had a lot of help with this one. Mostly from my brothers, Russell and Jeremy who appeared in the performance / recorded in the video, and from Brianna who assisted with the production and recording and communicating with the organisers during the performance. Jeremy I think cancelled his friday night plans to help (i only settled on the idea and knew i would need him a few hours before) and Brianna made some pictures of us that are rel precious. I dont remember the last time the three of us were in a picture together. So I'm really grateful for these things. Plenty love.

You want my opinion? The thing couldn't have gone better. All I wanted was to make the image of men playing this game, and we did, but there's so much more in there and in the use if this medium that makes it interesting. I've watched it hundred times now. Check out our reference video :] I could talk you to death about this, all the bonuses, but maybe its best if I let you see them. I hope to make other installments of 'Trinidad is Offline' that i feel are valuable in the same way. It can be like a mirror, but not the images you usually get to see, just the ones that exist in quiet or that cant exist outside of this. Im really happy about this. Thanx for watching :]

-Rodell

ps: here's the official 2006 figures on internet penetration in T&T households according to ECLAC. This says 12%. My 'less than 17%' is a more recent figure, but I cant find the source online.

.gif Paintings

2011-04-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

Hey. To share these with you. These are paintings, I'm thinking of them as paintings. In the way fellas decades ago painted market scenes or fishermen pulling seine - just images from their environments that describe the place and time - I'm thinking of these as 2011 versions of that, using my environment and the tools of the time.

Only one of them is working on this blog, but I've posted them on my site - click here to take a look.

-Rodell

Brianna's Portrait & New Work @ ARC Launch/Exhibition

2011-04-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

eyy, so me and brianna made some new images of her last week. the main intention was to make a portrait to use on the arc magazine website as she's this issue's featured artist and you can see the one she chose to go with here.

at one point, in that very angular, symmetrical dress, there was a shot where she looked almost inanimate, and there was what we thought was an interesting similarity between that image and the images of some of her girls so we explored that a bit and i love the pictures that came out. so those are the ones i want to share with you (as usual, click images to enlarge):

arc is launching issue two at alice yard on roberts street this coming wednesday. i'm excited about showing some new work as part of the exhibition and i've got some images in the magazine as well. check this link for details and pass chru if u free. it should be a rel nice night.

see u then,
-rodell

Lady Chancellor XVI, XVII & XVIII - 17APR11

2011-04-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

Found objects on Lady Chancellor Road, St. Anns.

EDIT, 22APR11: I found this last set about a hundred feet or so from my apartment, on the only road out, in a spot they'd be impossible for me to miss - and its four of them in the same spot - more than i've ever found in one spot, and i can't shake the feeling that someone(s) put them there for me to find. I dunno if they think they're doin me a favour or fuckin me up. I'll keep the pictures, cus maybe im bein paranoid, but I'm also done with this project. The information is out there, so how can i be sure of what's genuine now? I think i have a nice set tho :] and i enjoyed this.

-Rodell

2011-04-18T00:33:00.001-07:00

Maker: Self (cont'd)

2011-04-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

rodell warner, - maker: self - 03APR11(I)

rodell warner, - maker: self - 03APR11(II)

rodell warner, - maker: self - 10APR11(I)

rodell warner, - maker: self - 10APR11(II)

This project is based on a drawing exercise where you're instructed to look at an object and draw it but not allowed to look at the paper you're drawing on, only at the object.

I'm applying this repeatedly to self portraits in permanent ink: making an un-erasable new image of myself without the ability to judge or edit it.

At the end, looking at the drawing, I'm presented with a new way of seeing myself or another possible me that could not have existed without the loss of control that came from looking away as it was being formed.

I have been trying to apply this technique/idea to life situations. The self-portrait exercise is a visual metaphor or parallel of that.

uptothetimes

2011-04-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

brothersandsisters. i just updated www.rodellwarner.com and would like for you to take a look.

i'll soon have to update again cus ive been fortunately productive
so i felt i HAD to now because things were starting to back up and get old

i was hoarding hoarding hoarding when i should have been sharing sharing sharing
hoarding is from fear but there's always more - and why should i deny the internet full respect when i KNOW how generous it can be.

showing things in real life is important, but the internet is also very real. so take a look, if all goes to plan i'll have some more to share soon that im very fucking excited about.

love, love, love
-rodell

Silencio/Silence

2011-03-31T05:20:00.001-07:00

This is a short improvised performance by Michelle Isava, Eliseo Solís Mora and myself at Territorio Desdibujado 2.0 (Blurred Territory 2.0), curated by Solís Mora, as part of the 11th Velada De Santa Lucia in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

What ended up happening reflected conversations we'd had in the days before about difficulty/failure communicating across language barriers and about forcing one's culture/solutions onto others - both these themes derived from our collective experiences travelling and encountering these things in our interactions.

In another performance that night (shown in still image above, but not recorded on video), we improvised a very loud argument between Eliseo (first language spanish) and myself (first language trini) where every point of argument and verbal jab between us had to be translated by Michelle, who speaks both languages. The performance ended when a joke (also translated) dissipated the tension.

These were my first experiences with this kind of performance.

A video recording of Silencio/Silence can be seen here: http://www.vimeo.com/21268676

Photo courtesy Carlos Germán Rojas

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Maker: Self (cont'd)

2011-03-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

rodell warner, maker: self - 16MAR11(I)

rodell warner, maker: self - 16MAR11(II)

rodell warner, maker: self - 18MAR11

rodell warner, maker: self - 12MAR11(II)

This project is based on a drawing exercise where you're instructed to look at an object and draw it but not allowed to look at the paper you're drawing on, only at the object.

I'm applying this repeatedly to self portraits in permanent ink: making an un-erasable new image of myself without the ability to judge or edit it.

At the end, looking at the drawing, I'm presented with a new way of seeing myself or another possible me that could not have existed without the loss of control that came from looking away as it was being formed.

I have been trying to apply this technique/idea to life situations. The self-portrait exercise is a visual metaphor or parallel of that.

Lady Chancellor XV - 15MAR11

2011-03-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Found object, Lady chancellor Road, St Anns.

Maker: Self (cont'd)

2011-03-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

rodell warner, maker: self - 15MAR11(II)

rodell warner, maker: self - 02MAR11

rodell warner, maker: self - 15MAR11(I)

rodell warner, maker: self - 11MAR11

rodell warner, maker: self - 13MAR11

This project is based on a drawing exercise where you're instructed to look at an object and draw it but not allowed to look at the paper you're drawing on, only at the object.

I'm applying this repeatedly to self portraits in permanent ink: making an un-erasable new image of myself without the ability to judge or edit it.

At the end, looking at the drawing, I'm presented with a new way of seeing myself or another possible me that could not have existed without the loss of control that came from looking away as it was being formed.

I have been trying to apply this technique/idea to life situations. The self-portrait exercise is a visual metaphor or parallel of that.

"Maker: Self" at Territorio Desdibujado 2.0 - XI Velada de Santa Lucia

2011-03-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

Buena! This is a view of my self portraits (being installed) at Territorio Desdibujado 2.0 (Blurred Territory 2.0) - an exhibition of self portraits curated by Eliseo Solís Mora that showed the images of around 100 artists as part of the 11th Velada De Santa Lucia in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

For the Velada, every year for the past 11 years, the residents of this particular community in Maracaibo generously lend their houses to all kinds of performers, artists and curators from all over Venezuela and The World who show their works in, on and around the houses and streets. The entire event is organised with a lotta love by artist Clamencia Labin and attended by thousands of very lovely people.

It would be a huge understatement to simply say that my entire experience of venezuela was coloured by the love and generousity of new friends and the beautiful people I met in Maracaibo and Caracas. I'm really looking forward to participating even more next year and if I can find ways to give even half as much as I recieve, that'll be a nice way to smile back at the universe.

Maker: Self

2011-03-01T03:57:00.001-08:00

rodell warner, maker: self - 27FEB11

This project is based on a drawing exercise where you're instructed to look at an object and draw it but not allowed to look at the paper you're drawing on, only at the object.

I'm applying this repeatedly to self portraits in permanent ink: making an un-erasable new image of myself without the ability to judge or edit it.

At the end, looking at the drawing, I'm presented with a new way of seeing myself or another possible me that could not have existed without the loss of control that came from looking away as it was being formed.

I have been trying to apply this technique/idea to life situations. The self-portrait exercise is a visual metaphor or parallel of that.

rodell warner, maker: self - 28FEB11

rodell warner, maker: self - 01MAR11

rodell warner, maker: self - 26FEB11

Lady Chancellor XIV - 28FEB11

2011-02-28T19:09:00.000-08:00

Found object, Lady Chancellor Road, St Anns

Drawing Exercises / Self Portraiture

2011-02-26T12:29:00.001-08:00

again thinking 'i want to get really good at drawing'
must be powerful to have no limit on a thing like that.
communicationnn
but lawwd - patience & discipline.
this time.

Lady Chancellor XII & XIII - 24FEB11

2011-02-26T12:06:00.001-08:00

found objects, lady chancellor road, st anns.

Lady Chancellor XI - 21FEB11

2011-02-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

island

2011-02-21T03:55:00.000-08:00

all my separate little worlds constantly tending to / being realised as actually just a single, littler world.

.

Lady Chancellor X - 19FEB11

2011-02-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

found object, lady chancellor road.

Murray Street II - 10FEB11

2011-02-11T22:19:00.001-08:00

Murray Street I - 10FEB11

2011-02-11T22:17:00.000-08:00

2011-02-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

Space Times

2011-01-30T11:40:00.001-08:00

Eyy.. so i was knockin about online and came across this work that reminded me of something i did in june/july 2009.

These are six stickers that were posted in the hallway of CMB Advertising as part of the 'Six Pieces In The Hall' project which was an ongoing in-house micro exhibition kinda thing that i met when i started working there in 2008. In six 13"x17" plexiglass displays that were initially intended to showcase the agency's recent or award winning ads, staff were encouraged to find alternative ways to use the space. This would be seen by other members of staff and people coming in to CMB for meetings / to make deliveries etc.

My response was these stickers that read "These are the __________ times." Pens were provided, silently inviting passersby to fill in the blanks. I documented the exchanges in the pictures below:

I also posted a few of these, though without pens, in downtown Port of Spain and Curepe Junction.

All but one were left blank or ripped down - in Curepe Junction it read "These are the Focking times."

--

Worker Portraits On Show at Art Museum of the Americas

2011-01-23T15:23:00.000-08:00

Eyy. This is a view of my CEPEP Worker Portraits (five pictures on right) installed in the "Wrestling With The Image: Caribbean Interventions" exhibition at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC.

This exhibition, part of the World Bank's "About Change" exhibition programme, opened on Friday 21st and runs until March 10th, 2011.

Also visible in this picture is the work of Phillip Thomas of Jamaica (extreme left), Jean Ulrick-Desert of Haiti (center on wall), and Marcel Pinas of Suriname (on floor).

The online catalogue for the exhibition can be downloaded here.

The press release/full info about the show can be read/downloaded here.

And images from the opening night can be seen here

Much thanks to Nadia Huggins for this pic! Its really quite valuable as I wasn't able to be there myself.

About the show:

"The Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) announces the opening of Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions, an exhibition of contemporary art from twelve Caribbean countries. Featuring work by artists from the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, the exhibition is curated by artist and curator Christopher Cozier and art historian Tatiana Flores.

Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions presents works in a variety of media, including photography, video, painting, graphic arts, sculpture, and installation. The scope of the objects demonstrates how the region’s contemporary artists are confronting stereotypes about the Caribbean without denying their own surroundings or rejecting the worlds in which they operate. Through investigations on history, tourism, globalization, popular culture, and gender, these artists urge us to reconsider our own expectations on how a Caribbean image should look."

-rw

EDIT: Another image, this one by Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS

"Cc: Everybody" in Island Life

2011-01-21T01:57:00.000-08:00

eyy. there's a lil bit of cc: everybody in the current issue of island life magazine along with other erotic art week 2010 pieces. i got this copy at mohammed's bookstore on henry street, and i hear they're also available at r.i.k. so u can have a look. take care. -rodell

A Drawing

2011-01-16T11:47:00.000-08:00

click photo to enlarge

from 2008 that i made with brianna mccarhty.

Lady Chancellor IX - 13JAN11

2011-01-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

Mobile Portrait Studio: Lara Stein Pardo and Rodell Warner

2011-01-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

Friday 14 January, 2011, at 7.30 pm at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street Woodbrook

From Mobile Portrait Studio, Port of Spain, January 2011

Mobile Portrait Studio, a project by Lara Stein Pardo, considers people, public spaces, performance, and personal interaction in relationship to the role of portraiture, art-making, memory, and historical narratives. Mobile Portrait Studio ran in two locations in Miami in December 2010. The Port of Spain version is a collaboration between Stein Pardo and Rodell Warner.

On 11 January, 2011, Stein Pardo and Warner made a series of portraits of passersby on Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook. In the second stage of their collaboration, they will operate the Mobile Portrait Studio at Alice Yard on Friday 14 January from 7.30 pm. Volunteer participants can have their portraits taken and will receive a free print. The images will be digitally preserved as part of a larger series of artworks.

Stein Pardo and Warner will also screen the portraits taken on 11 January, and engage in a conversation about the project, their other recent work, and their interest in portraiture.

All are invited.

About the artists:

Lara Stein Pardo is an artist and PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Michigan. She is currently a visiting researcher in the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami and artist-in-residence at the Deering Estate in Cutler Bay. Her artwork, research, and writing revolve around place, gender, race, ethnicity, art, and artistic practice in the US and the Caribbean. She works in the medium of photography, installation, performance, and short film.

Rodell Warner is an artist and designer. His recent work includes the interactive installation Photobooth during Erotic Art Week 2009 and 2010, and the ongoing portrait series Closer. Other work in progress is documented at his blog, Free Paper. He is a member of Alice Yard’s network of creative collaborators.

From Mobile Portrait Studio, Miami, December 2010

Lady Chancellor Road VIII, 11JAN11

2011-01-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

Lady Chancellor's Secret

2011-01-10T16:36:00.001-08:00

Found objects on Lady Chancellor Road, St. Anns.

Lady Chancellor Road I, 22NOV10

Lady Chancellor Road II, 29DEC10

Rust Street, 08JAN11

Lady Chancellor Road III, 09JAN11

Lady Chancellor Road IV, 09JAN11

Lady Chancellor Road V, 09JAN11

Lady Chancellor Road VI, 09JAN11

Lady Chancellor Road VII, 09JAN11

1.1.11

2011-01-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

workin/playin on some new shit. showin this month. details as they become real.

know what i made in 2010 that was new? not one fuck. good thing that done, ent?

'everything happens.'

-rw

2010-12-29T12:49:00.000-08:00

2010-12-17T04:44:00.000-08:00

Homeless PPL

2010-11-30T13:03:00.000-08:00

Hot topic.

good excuse to show you this thing i made a couple years ago

click image to enlarge

and Darryn Boodan's open letter to Mayor Louis Lee Sing on the subject.

If yuh lookin to go homeless, don't do it in Trinidad. Yuh gets no love.

Forget it.

2010-11-24T16:50:00.000-08:00

____________________

via email
____________________

Camille,

Forget it. I'd like to withdraw from the festival. Please don't show my film.

You're ridiculous. The more I think about the kind of place I want to live in versus what your thinking makes the place I do live in, the more i realise i cant put up wit fuckery like this.

There's no film festival anywhere in the world that accepts someone's work, then calls to apologise that they can't show it or ask them to change the music based on how 'jarring' it is or ANYTHING of that nature.

That's ass fuckin backwards.

Its 'lets pretend we have a film festival'.

Its 'lets show nice things that everyone agrees with'.

Who decided this should be in your show in the first place if you find it too 'jarring' for your 'aged 4-65 audience' and your 'people on the level of academy award winners' anyway??

Forget it.

I guess you can't show a 'jarring' film at animae caribe, even if the point of your film for it to be jarring.

No wonder the fucking thing produces such shining stars every year.

Fuckin joke.

Do Better,

-Rodell Warner

____________________

Sorry you feel that way Rodell.

Camille Selvon Abrahams
Creative Director Animae Caribe Animation Festival

____________________

http://vimeo.com/7693913

____________________

image minus photo

2010-11-21T05:52:00.000-08:00

last night getting food by the savannah

• a man trying to start a fight over a disagreement about a ketchup bottle.

• a couple smiling. him, holding her by the waist, teaching her classic dance steps as they wait in line to order.

• a man in an s.u.v using the gyro stand like a drive-thru, backing traffic up while waiting for his order.

• people dressed all the way down.

• people dressed all the way up.

New Post

2010-11-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

jesus this blog is so boring

feels like "hi *more information from me about me*"
which is exactly it's point.

which is my point.

have to solve.

_____________________

the information:
_____________________

i'll be participating in Joy Wai Gallery's inaugural exhibition "Whose Self-Portrait? The Subject Behind the Camera" in December in New York City. The show opens on the 16th and runs until January 31st. I will be showing two images from "Photobooth" which is a project made of self-portraits. One of the images is my self-portrait.

i'll also be participating in Animae Caribé 2010 which runs from the 25th to 27th of this month, November. they'll be screening my animated short "Fifty Second fight Scene - by Maureen"

also, as of december, i'll be working as 'junior creative director' at a small advertising agency in town, from my home studio, and no longer at cmb. im excited abt it. anxious too though. mostly to prove, probably mostly to me, that i can be excellent at it. so the suspense is kinda killin me right now - i just wanta jump in. side effect is that im sure i look like i just cant wait to get outta cmb. which, without exaggerating, is really like home.

and home - i moved recently. back to town.

and a bunch o other things. changing.

future seems suddenly closer.

-rodell.

Website Update! HTML Confidence!

2010-10-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Ey. So i updated www.rodellwarner.com

O-ver-due!

I've included new images from 'Closer', 'Photobooth', 'Cc: Everybody' and 'Jam-IT!' so there's new/more stuff to look at.

And i feel it better represents what im about now, so i'll be confidently givin ppl the address when i'm about.

m-hm.

I also joined this Creative Caribbean Network today.

Look muh profile: http://www.creativecaribbeannetwork.com/person/10304/en

If u's a caribbean creative, join up. And add meh.

Something else i's spose to tell yuh...

forget..

OR!

I basically built the site myself with this web application called INDEXHIBIT and a lil help from Anderson and a LOTTA help from the forum! and my lovin internet.

If u willin to get ur hands dirty, i fully recomend it. And u can do a lot more with it than i did depending on how many HTML tutorials u cram / frustrated u willin to get. And its free. All u need is web hosting.

Ok. This post feels disjointed and like i still forget something..

but i'm allowed i'm on vacation!

"what day of the week is it?"

Take care!

The Noble Douglas Dance Company Inc's "DAM 25"

2010-10-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Shooting a dance show is fun.

Gorgeous bodies in elegant costumes making beautiful shapes under a light show - Its hard to not make some interesting images in a situation like that.

These are some documentary pictures of the Noble Douglas Dance Company Incorporated's 25 anniversary celebratory show "DAM 25" at the Queen's Hall a few weeks ago. Enjoy :]

click photos to enlarge

'Remember To Be Something Else'

2010-10-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

this was september 2008

i've been seriously susceptible to nostalgia lately

all im thinkin about is youth and beauty

Free Papers & Mad Papers - from Jamrock to T&T

2010-10-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

O'neil says in Jamaica, when people get married they say "Yuh free papers bun!" - lol

meanin yuh cant gone do waeva u want - ur now a married man/woman

I was givin him the address of this blog and he say "How yuh blog name so?"

I told him it was about the freeness/low expectations i have for myself when im drawin on some old scrap of paper, and that i'd just made it up.

So as we were on the topic of "papers" and what they mean in our respective countries, i had to ask him if they know bout "Mad Papers" in Jamaica.. he din know what those were so i explained

when a person's certified crazy, you say they have "they mad papers".. or just "he have he papers" so everybody knows 'da fella mad.. doh play up'

papers..

trinidad have rel mad ppl tho..
so i figure it only makes sense we'd have verbal shortcuts to explain that.. hahah!

was an interesting exchange. just thought i'd share.

-rodell

New Print

2010-09-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

This was last weekend..

$150 if u want one.
email me.

rodell.warner@gmail.com

-r

People Needed!

2010-09-23T03:48:00.000-07:00

Rodell Warner is often in need of people to sit for various photo projects and is in the process of compiling a list of interested persons.

If you are interested, please send a clearly visible photo of yourself and contact information to rodell.warner@gmail.com

The only requirements are a minimum age of eighteen (18) years and willingness to participate.

You can see Rodell's work at www.freepaperblog.blogspot.com and the soon-to-be-updated www.rodellwarner.com

Please share this information freely.

Thank you!

-Rodell.

crowns & hearts & teeth & love & shit

2010-09-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

i made some t-shirts on the weekend.

they're stenciled by hand
fabric paint on 100% cotton
metallic siver & white on white

i really love them.

if u want one, lemme know, i'll make it for you.

rodell.warner@gmail.com

these are medium men's tees. those nice thin v-necks everybody's wearin. im goin to town later to look for a lady-cut version - i hope i find some.

i'm thinkin $150.00

-rodell

Self

2010-09-10T16:12:00.001-07:00

august 31, 2010
click photo to enlarge

Wow. Flashback.

2010-08-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

I forgot ALL OF THIS.

I was just going through 50million unmarked folders on my drive, looking for an image for work, and found these pictures from an old sketchbook.. i'm now realisin the book was a kinda diary.

its amazing to me right now, that none of the things i was thinking about then as like.. the most important shit in the world are any of the things i'm thinking about now. i forgot everything. and got new 'things'. its like a different person completely and these are only from a year and a half ago. I dont even draw anymore... and i never decided and i barely realised.

Life is so fuckin crazy dread.

A couple years from now, I'll probably forget all the things that are happening now.

Images From 'Photobooth' for EAW2010

2010-08-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

There was debate over whether i should have installed this project again this year for erotic art week. Dave said 'Why not, bitch?'. Richard said 'I feel that moment is sorta over'.

In the end the beauty of the idea of 'An artist exploring a work over time, even years' won out over the fear that maybe 'People might say you can't come up with anything new' and im glad it did.

An inquiry into the new phenomenon driven by our intensifying ability to exchange and circulate self images has driven an inquiry into one’s ability to capture and present one’s image and present the self as one wants to be seen.

In the context of Trinidad & Tobago’s Erotic Art Week 2009 and 2010, Rodell pushed this inquiry into the realm of how people imaged themselves as erotic, and how willing they might be to share these images. He created “the Photobooth”; a small, temporary studio space that provided visitors with privacy and a remote control that triggered a stationary camera. With their signed permission, the images that participants captured of themselves were exhibited to the public the following night. “the Photobooth” will now become a touring installation work.

u can read more about photobooth here

and see more pictures here and here

this is a link to a related post; last year's introduction of the project.

soon as i update my site with recent work, i think i'll upload more. and can i do a book? and a show. i feel they're necessary. a lot of these pictures are just sitting on my drive, doing nothing.

-rw

Cc: Everybody

2010-07-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hello.

This is a project by Brianna McCarthy and myself - our first collaborative work :]

The texts in the signs we made are copied from actual classified ads and the title of each piece is name of the local newspaper the ad was found in and the date of publication.

We've been working on this for months now and since the nature of the content of some of the pieces fit right in with Erotic Art Week's intention of opening discussion around sex and sexuality in Trinidad, we're exhibiting the first wave of signs at EAW2010.

Cc: Everybody is installed at Studio (on the corner of Ariapita Avenue and Luis Street (pictured below)) and at Brooklyn Bar (corner Roberts and Carlos streets, woodbrook (images to follow)). Pieces are being offered for sale and will be on show for all of Erotic Art Week, 21-31 July, 2010.

--

Cc: Everybody

Classified, Confidential - Everybody

Cc: Everybody explores the notion of privacy in the public domain. The project engages two common local media: the personals that appear in the national newspapers and a form of guerrilla street advertising developed locally to promote public parties. The publication of these, sometimes explicit, personal ads in the national domain may be considered surprising, given the context of a conservative, post-colonial island community. Cc: Everybody captures these private bits of black and white content and reproduces them, verbatim, in a most public and colourful medium. Cc:Everybody presents and interrelates this contemporary dichotomy as erotic art.

--

Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Trinidad Guardian Classifieds - 8th February, 2010 (No. 5)

Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Sunday Express Classifieds - 24th January, 2010

Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Trinidad Guardian Classifieds - 8th February, 2010 (No. 3)

Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Installation View at Studio on Ariapita Avenue Port of Spain - IMG_3

Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Installation View at Studio on Ariapita Avenue Port of Spain - IMG_2

More photos of the work; finished, in progress and installed; can be viewed in this flickr set and will be added in the coming days.

:]

-Rodell.

'Photobooth' Installed @ Bohemia for EAW2010

2010-07-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

click flyer image to enlarge.

just like last year - photobooth runnin till the 31st.
pass through!

edit: bohemia is at #33 murray street, woodbrook, obliquely opposite rostant advertising. please see http://eroticartweektt.blogspot.com for details on all events, times and locations. -rw

Richard Rawlins XX Sewing Machine XX Old Jeans XX New Bags XX People Posin XX Me

2010-07-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

and we made pictures::

seee mooore heeere

reeead mooore heeere

erotic art week's comin up

see u there!

Shooting Kromatiq

2010-06-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

hey.

these are some pictures of the dance crew 'kromatiq' that we shot on saturday. they're promoting an event called 'kromatiq sneaks out' thats coming up on july 3rd at the lure so these pics'll be used to promote that and the group in general too.

and these are from last december. there were less members in the group then.:

both shoots were fun. something different for me and the girls are rel cool. you can check out kromatiq on facebook. they're really very talented.

Pictures In A Magazine

2010-06-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
DRACONIAN SWITCH ISSUE 12

Change

2010-05-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

ey.

i found out today from the world bank art program that i've been accepted to the exhibition program 'about change' that i submitted work to a call for entries for about a month ago :]

not a lot o details details yet, but im pretty excited. i think the show is in washington so maybe i'll be going there? mind is racing.

i submitted ten photos from a project im still working on that was first called 'new work', then 'relief' and then 'change'. its about costuming. the image of the man in red up there is one of my favs and i planned to be done with the series and showing here by the end of june. we'll see how that goes.

i'm sure i'll have more to report soon. i cant wait till i can show this set in its entirety. i've been at this off and on for months now. i want it to be finished and alive.

brain is goin crazy :]

-rw

:]

2010-05-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Cozier & Trinidad

2010-05-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

ey. hello. check this out

these are some pictures of christopher cozier that we made a few weeks ago on a sunday morning.

basically chris needed a more recent photo to use for different things he has coming up - the one he's been using was shot by jeffery chock quite a few years ago.

what i wanted was to try and make something that caught something of chris' personality and, after reading in this article something about him being 'emphatically out of exile', i thought it was fitting to try and make the environment in the photo obviously trinidadian - the hills and trees, the gigantic green parlour doors. to have that quality that old pictures get. the way they let u know 'this is what it looked like then'.

further to that, i think once the sun started coming up and we really got to talking about trinidad, and the way things are and the way things were, it seemed completely the thing to do to capture harsh, dry brown of the hills as some kind of metaphor. 'this is what it looked like then' but also maybe 'the grass is always greener..'

so this is what we caught. one of these (the one with the cat) was published in last thursday's newsday accompanying an article entitled "cozier named official artist of film festival". you can read the full article here. there are also a few others in this flickr set.

take care.

Published

2010-03-02T10:47:00.000-08:00

a photo i had the opportunity to shoot in october of last year just got a second, more tangible life. its of chris cozier and richard rawlins being interviewed by darryn boodan for his critical space film and its been printed to accompany an article written by cozier in the book "Paramaribo Span, Contemporary Art in Suriname" (KIT) of which he is also co-editor.

its very cool to have this to my credit, and i have chris and richard to thank for it :]

the book itself is actually rel cool. kind of a defining statement. 'there's contemporary art in suriname. this is what it looks like.' things like that are valuable. and they only get more valuable as time passes and things change.

as a continuation of their work with the artists in paramaribo, a special issue of draconian switch is in the works featuring material gathered during their recent trip to suriname and interactions with the people there. so thats something cool to look out for.

also of note: chris' 'tropical night' is currently on show in afro modern at the tate, liverpool.

:]

take care

-rodell

JAM-IT! Photos Uploaded To Flickr Set

2010-02-23T05:21:00.000-08:00

about fifty photos along with two short 'video' moments. hit the pic to check it out. and enjoy :]

3Canal - Jam-IT! Photos

2010-02-21T18:30:00.000-08:00

baby. i want to show you some pictures.

remember i told u i was hangin around the 3Canal 'Jam-IT!' production a lil while ago? well, i had a lot of day job/work-work to do, so i didn't get to do it nearly as much as i wanted to but i did get to make it to a handful of rehearsals and one of the video sessions. thousands of pictures - a few dozen i really like.

laziness. sorting thousands of pictures - oh-geed! but i have a lot more to upload to the flickr set so i can share them with the cast and everybody. and you! so as soon as i do i'll let you know.

i have to tell u tho. i think the group is brilliant. what i wanted to do when i decided to do this, i didn't do. nowhere close. i hope you enjoy the pictures anyway. i can tell you i definitely learned a lot. about pictures but more about making things from being around the people involved. and about me and things i need to jump in to.

i think the 3Canal show is really important. i think a lot of the things that make trinidad special get taken by some really bright people who are really passionate about them and passionate about trinidad, as corny as that might sound, and put together to say something anybody can look at and understand and really feel and be affected by. i find that rel groovy.

all the things i know as 'trinidad things' like cannival and soca music that people talk about as really powerful things in a way i never really understood.. i really got to see those things regarded and used as very real, very familiar things and sorta evolved and put together in a real 2010, excellent kinda way to make something really very potent. but without bein heavy and nasty like a lot of art/ists can be. plenty pongin and movin and dancin and talkin and laughin. very familiar feeling.

i really understand something now.

i really didn't get it before.

when i shoot this next year, its really going to be something more. and thats not a promise or anything. its kind of an apology. and a challenge. but i know what to do now. in a way. im trinidadian too. i've been realisin that more and more for the last year. and especially after this carnival. i have all those tools to use too, and the instincts. i have the same powers.

i feel very powerful.

:]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: Photos and videos uploaded to my JAM-IT! Flickr set. Check out the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/freepaper/sets/72157623358414911/

Showing Off

2010-02-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

i want to show off this tumblr i've been keeping called too much eyes

i was keepin it anonymous so i could feel free, but since i like it so much, its less fun if i cant say its mine and share it.
i post a lot o things i think are excellent there.
including a lot o my own stuff. but its okay if you don't like that.

and i want to show off this unedited stop frame kfc tv ad footage.
dave williams and darren cheewah and junior welsch and me made it.
did u see the finished ads on tv? did u like it? i wonder.

im disappointed. i wont be shooting anything for cmb, this ad agency i work for, anymore.
i was expecting to be shooting a lot more for cmb projects.
i guess somebody thought i was shit.
its disheartening, and a genuine loss of some great opportunities.
and money.
but im sayin 'fuck it'

i plan on bein too fucking excellent this year.
in no time, the loss'll be minor.

i've been working on a project for an upcoming show on and off for the last couple months. i think the photos are the best i've made and i want to show them. i dont want to wait for the show. but slappin things up on the internet is such a thin, nasty way of introducing something you put a lot of effort into.

on the other hand, i've been looking at them and thinking about them for so long now, im already bored and on to the next thing. by the time the show rolls around, im sure they'll still be relevant, but i'll not be nearly as excited about them as i was two months ago.

this bloggin thing is double edged. if i dont blog, i might think its because there's nothing to blog - i feel like i havent done anything noteworthy in a while and there's the ridiculous fear that i'll become invisible. if i do blog, i feel like the work posted got wasted, especially if it hasn't had some real, honest reception in the real world (putting your name on something and sticking your neck out) - just the cheap, fickle internet. that lies.

double edged also because while sometimes getting feedback seems absolutely valuable and advisable, it can also sometimes prove to be a very bad idea, inviting random (often unsubstantiated) opinions from the internet when there's no shortage of the useful kind off of it. its really very much about wanting to be seen though. and known as someone wonderful. and valuable. showing off, basically.
not that that's horrible.
but i think the publicness of the blogging thing is harmful. for me, at least.

better cool myself and do some work. and hush up.
well no. hushin up is bad. u dont figure anything out.
what i mean is, forgive the rant.

i feel better though. so now, all i want is to tell you that i've been taking some pictures of 3-canal's upcoming production 'Jam-IT'. I think the show is going to be amazing. honestly. and the pictures are going to be in the upcoming issue of draconian switch, which is going to be in a new format. and i'll be posting as soon as that comes out. there's some other things im working on that when they come out, i hope will be excellent and make me think that im excellent, and you. its all anybody wants. but only if it actually is excellent.

i might erase this?

take care.

Commercials

2009-12-28T05:38:00.000-08:00

ey. hello! wanted to show you this.

i've been doing more and more commercial photography work lately, little jobs here and there but im a lil excited about this latest one

just finished last week, shooting a set for the carib carnival campaign and production's been quick so billboards are already starting to pop up featuring the images. this one is near the brewery on the eastern main road, richard sent me a pic of it :]

next'll come press ads and banners and things featuring all the other images. closer to carnival time i guess. and packaging! in trinidad and up the islands too.

feels kinda cool to have some direct input into a big project this time instead o just bein the guy that puts the artwork together. a nice way to end the year.

im lookin forward to more of this.
maybe one day makin pictures'll be all i do in the daytime.

-rw

Look at this poster _ Read this vague update.

2009-12-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

long time no post.

nice long poster:

:: just under 200 photos from 'photobooth'
:: 12 inches wide x 38 inches long
:: continuous laser print on 250gm matt art paper
:: edition of 10
:: signed and numbered at back
:: ttd $140.00 / usd $22.00

available at alice yard shop christmas eve
available at alice yard shop online

for you

to buy.

-------------------------

otherwise

im working on some new things
but i dont want to post them in progress
or before they show (in march?)
looks like im not workin ent?
i think i feel like that a little
maybe its true
i havent done what i thought id do this year
i have to work harder
and bigger

-rw

Fifty Second Fight Scene - by Maureen

2009-11-19T06:20:00.000-08:00

i made this tiny movie under a pseudonym.

hit the pic, check it out.

"Jake Don't Learn" at Masqureader

2009-11-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

ey. that very short story o mine that i showed u the illustration for? - the words are on a new writing blog called masqureader.

czech it.

Featured on Small Axe

2009-11-11T10:24:00.001-08:00

click to view article

i really appreciate chris linkin this up, and dave writing it :]

We Started Shooting "Closer"

2009-11-09T17:18:00.000-08:00

hey.

we started shooting the new project this saturday gone (the divali saturday setup rel fail). it was bess. a real 'well oiled machine / go team go / five minute break / i need another one over here! / ways that come out rel good / shit the flash not firin / high five / gimme a hug' kinda saturday :]

and between dave and brianna and my brother russell and michelle and our new friend stefan - everyting rellll get handle. hard. hard, hard, hard. everybody was all over everything and basically all i did was hit the shutter button over and over for about four or five hours. i have to get everybody a new car or a show horse or something. anything riduclous like that. these are some of the photos:

in case you're not familiar, the project is a kind of experiment to see how comfortable we are around each other. its simple; we set up on the promenade and asked passersby to stand for a photo with a stranger, however close they were comfortable with, and to look each other in the eyes. thats the photo.

its an issue i have, im sure im not the only one. and especially with other men, and especially more recently where i'm very, very aware of who i look at when i'm walking around and how uncomfortable i am with making eye contact with anyone and goin crazy about what they might think it means. knockin it around with friends recently, we boiled it down to something like 'is either u want to fuck or u want to fight.' - just basic eye contact. and either is negative as a first impression walkin down the street. and how come u can't really just look at somebody cus they have an interesting face or something? and is this a problem for everybody, or just for me?

anyway. thats really what the investigation is kinda. i hope i didn't put it too awkawrdly or devalue anything for you by putting it in a personal context. im just saying its not for nothing. thats why i think its valuable and why im doing it. i shouldn't feel so much like i need to explain myself, ent? probably din even give u a chance to have your own thoughts about it.

its late.

the people? they were very, very different. and many (we shot over a hundred people). so the pictures were also very different. i hope thats coming through with the ones i chose to show, im always partial to the ones that are technically better shots but sometimes, they're not the ones with the most valuable information in them. lots o times on saturday, the flash didnt fire when a visiting pacific islander tentatively rested a hand on a grown gentleman's elbow and they had a rare little moment or i was nowhere around to make a photo when a disgusted lady scheupsed and walked off on a man who didn't find her attractive enough to take a photo with - which are all the things we're made of.

i hope i caught enough of what we're made of to make this an interesting set of pictures is what im really thinking. and that im not the only one into this.

we'll be continuing. you know how things like this change and change the more you work on them.

take care
-rodell

Museum of Arts & Designhighlights "Critical Space" film

2009-11-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

so cool! the title says it all. check it out
the video it refers to is here
if u recognise the images in the intro, das my lil two cents in the whole thing
so many cool things are happening around town!

:]

Matrimony

2009-11-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

bri and i shot a wedding on saturday. a first.
it was fun :] these are a few of the shots:

An illustration for a story I wrote

2009-10-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

hey. its out of context without the words, but this is what i made to accompany a story i wrote recently:

and these are some studies:

i really love the process of it, im going to be doing this more.
cant wait to have this printed with the story.
it might be a very small book, but i think im more excited about making a huge silk screened two sided poster.

the illustration should make perfect sense when you read the story. if it doesn't, i wouldn't have done a good job at all :]

take care.

Records

2009-10-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

ey. you look good. check these out:

these too:

so these are just some documentary photos some nice people asked me to make. that first set is of christopher cozier and richard rawlins bein interviewed at chris' studio earlier today for a short film darryn boodan is makin rel quick and the second set is dave williams' piece 'scan' that he recently performed at queen's hall with kwasi romero and kevin jack. it was excellent, ask anybody.

just wanted to share those, they make me happy.

you take care :]

"Closer" Solicitation

2009-10-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ey.

Goin out to the dance festival in a lil while to see dave perform his new piece, and, if i get the chance, find some more ppl for the project on saturday. Made a lil flyer. Hello!