Sensoring sound, Mapping the Invisible
Panama
Aim
Funding for 2 art residencies awarded by La Wakaya Current, working with indigenous tribes in Guna Yala, Panama and Atacama, Chile.
Hello!
Apologies for radio silence but thank everyone that has kindly already contributed to my project just before we ended up in a live version of Black mirror.
What were the chances that the first time I try crowd funding that a pandemic hits the globe...
The residences were obviously postponed but with the glimmer of some normality coming back, they have been rescheduled.
The first will be Chile in October and then I will go to Panama mid April 2021.
I have now reopened the crowd funder with the hope that I can reach my financial goal.
As a result I’ve decided to offer some new prints made in the isolation, which I can deliver without the wait time.
All the other rewards are still available and all previously bought ones will be honoured, although I will deliver the t-shirts and trumpets purchased within this month.
Please have a look again and share with anyone that it might interest.
Any help or support is greatly appreciated!
My name is Bert Gilbert, and I am a multi-disciplinary artist based in London.
My art practice uses the narrative and haptic qualities of textiles and other materials to produce sensory artefacts, installations, sculptures and performances. It is informed by my own critical and active engagement with ritual and altered states of being, as part of a process of re-discovering a universal 'Sacred Heritage’. I see the artist as the "sensor" that picks up shared information and feeds it back, via interactions and interventions, to the collective mind; making the invisible, visible.
My work dramatises and explores the foundation of primordial cosmologies witnessed within myth, nature rituals, folkloric storytelling and music. It creates a visceral language of expression and operates as an element of transferred emotional states, to activate a 'feeling' or connection between the work and the audience, with the works functioning as portals to different realities of thought and vision.
Last year, supported by a development grant from the Arts Council of England, I travelled to jungles of Peru to work with indigenous communities, recording 3D sound, creating AR interfaces using input from a psychoacoustic expert, a neuroscientist who specialises in creativity and imagination, and an analytical hypnotherapist with the focus on creating heart-brain coherence.
3d scan composites from Peruvian jungle 2019 Bert Gilbert
I have been accepted into La Wayaka Current's artist residency programme at Guna Yala in Panama and Atacama, Chile.
These residencies are an amazing opportunity for me to expand the work exploring indigenous cosmologies and produce an ambitious new body of work with the aim of creating a cross-cultural exchange, and preservation of indigenous knowledge and voices, with full respect and collaboration of the communities involved.
ABOUT LA WAYAKA CURRENT
La Wayaka Current is "a nomadic arts residency and research project curated in connection to remote natural environments and indigenous knowledge. Working to develop new perspectives through creative practice and critical thought at a time of ecological and climatic crisis."
They work with indigenous groups, communities and individuals living in remote parts of our planet in order to raise awareness, listen and learn from indigenous knowledge in natural environments. https://www.lawayakacurrent.com/about
Residency Periods :
October 26th- November 27th 2020. Atacama, Chile.
April 27th- May 26th, 2021. Guna Yala, Panama
WHAT I PLAN TO DO
During the residency, I will have an opportunity to learn directly from each tribe.
The matriarchal community of Guna Yala of Panama are botanical healers that sing to the plants to awaken their healing powers.
They also believe in gender fluidity, as embodied in their tradition of Omeggid, individuals considered neither male nor female but a third gender. That gender is not about biology, but more about the way we identify and express ourselves as individuals.
Based in the Atacama Desert of Chile, one of the driest places on earth, the Andean community of Likan Antai, have been a nomadic community for thousands of years.
They still practice subsistence-based farming and herding, and are sacred stewards of this environment. I will have a unique opportunity to hear and record their local mythologies and learn from the botanical traditions of their ancestors, which continue to nurture the link between human animal plant: the earth, and the cosmos.
WHAT YOUR DONATION WILL FUND
La Wayaka Current kindly granted me a small amount of financial aid to reduce my residency fee, but there is still a considerable amount I need to raise to cover equipment, flight and the contribution made to each tribe that we will be staying with. The majority of the funding will go directly to the indigenous communities
Contribution to each community for hosting
£1281 ( for both trips x 2) = £2562
plus
1-2 Hr Curated Talks/Activities with Local communities + Translation:
£105 (£35 Per Session x 3 Sessions) x 2 trips = £210
Local Transfer To/From Airports:
£84 (£42 x 2 Trips) x 2 people = £168
Research Trips (Entrance Fees, Translator, Logistics (Transport etc.):
£300 (£60 Per Trip x 5 Trips) x 2 people = £600
Plus 4 return flights @ £1300
London to Panama - Panama to Puerto Obaldia
London to Santigo, Chile - Santigo Chile to Calama
Travel insurance £100
Equipment: Solar panel pack, Camera and tripod, 2 x hard drives @£609
Total £5550
I plan to offer new artworks made within the residencies and reduced prices on original artworks to fund these trips.
WHAT I'LL BE MAKING
While in residence, I am interested in continuing my research 3D mapping native plants and landscapes and ceremonial activities with the idea of creating a series of virtual and physical portals / meeting points between the visible and invisible.
Within the residencies I will 3d scan the environments and recording the communities ceremonies and stories, producing a series of physical and virtual field drawings and photography, this will lead to a new body of prints, paintings and sculptural objects and artefacts. I plan to go on to produce a sensory immersive installation with the research made during this time
I am most excited for the opportunity to learn from both The matriarchal Guna Yala and the Likan Antai Indigenous Communities, that will be teaching about local ecology, history and their practices in using natural resources such as native plants.
Programme Opportunities while in residence:
In addition to being provided with studio space, lodging, food, and logistical support, the program includes the following opportunities to learn from the indigenous community collaborators. I will be completely off grid without wifi, with limited access to electricity so this is a unique opportunity to fully immerse myself and my art practice to produce some magic!
-Research Trips focused on: archeology, native plants and their uses, Andean astronomy, and agriculture
-Site Visits: Rainbow Valley, Reserva Nacional de Flamencos, Valley of the Moon, Salar de Atacama (salt flats), Toconao Village, Valley of Jerez and the Cartarpe River
-Museum visits: Museum of Meteorites, Museum of Archeology, Observatory
ARTWORK
The Four Skins of the apocalypse 2016 Performance Stills and photographic prints Photo: Wig Worland
The Four Skins of the apocalypse 2016 Performance Stills and photographic prints
The Liberation Suits Bert Gilbert and Izzet Ers Istanbul 2017
The Liberation Suits Bert Gilbert and Izzet Ers Istanbul 2017Ceremonial Entry Poles: Sculpture, ink illustration and Performance Still 2017The Sorceress: Canvas and balck gloss paint, wood and bandages, work made at a residency in working mental asylum Bedburg Hau, Germany 2014
The Sky Portals: Offcuts of inherited dyed fur, wood and led lights. Cyprus. 2019
Please visit www.bertgilbert.co.uk to find more information about my work or follow me on Instagram @bert_gilbert
This project successfully funded on 28th May 2020