Blue Skies: A Conversation Series
Blue Skies – A Conversation Series
Earlier this year, during the height of the global pandemic and mandatory isolation, ICF sought to continue contact with and support of its network in myriad ways – one of which was a new strand of activity titled Blue Skies.
Initiated as a conversation series, Blue Skies fostered one-to-one and group conversations led by practitioners working across multiple disciplines on a proposed topic that could take into account the immediate and long-term impact of Covid-19 upon creative practice, personal and/or public life.
If participants also felt it possible, we welcomed speculations and encouraged hearing about identifications of foreseeable changes that they would like to pragmatically cohere – the parameters constituting what those desired changes were or could be, left open for interpretation. In the midst of (and exacerbated by) the Covid-19 lockdown, the world was also confronted with the glaring reality of the inequalities embedded in our societies, which several participants in the conversation series have chosen to address in their analysis of our current moment and possible futures.
Blue Skies commences with 14 conversations from participants based in Africa, Australia, Europe, India, South America, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, to be published in different audio-visual formats supported with closed captioning and downloadable transcripts between July and September 2020. These and future conversations will form a public, collective dialogue around the capacity for this moment to elicit change.
Image: Jillian Mayer, You’ll Be Okay video still (2014). Courtesy of David Castillo Gallery.
Vidisha Fadescha & Jyotsna Siddharth
Vidisha Fadescha & Jyotsna Siddharth
Rubiane Maia & Tom Nóbrega
Rubiane Maia & Tom Nóbrega
Rujunko Pugh & Marie-Therese Png
Rujunko Pugh & Marie-Therese Png
Simina Neagu, Valentina Bin & Andrea Phillips
Simina Neagu, Valentina Bin & Andrea Phillips
Season Butler & Françoise Vergès
Season Butler & Françoise Vergès
Jamila Johnson-Small & Giorgia Ohanesian Nardin
Jamila Johnson-Small & Giorgia Ohanesian Nardin
Naima Hassan & Anisa Daud
Naima Hassan & Anisa Daud
JAŠA Mrevlje-Pollak & Gorazd V. Mrevlje
JAŠA Mrevlje-Pollak & Gorazd V. Mrevlje
Khaleb Brooks & Naeem Davis
Khaleb Brooks & Naeem Davis
Elijah Maja & Ibrahim Cissé with Dominique White & Adam Farah
Elijah Maja & Ibrahim Cissé with Dominique White & Adam Farah
Bhavisha Panchia & Leyya Mona Tawil (Lime Rickey International)
Bhavisha Panchia & Leyya Mona Tawil (Lime Rickey International)
Alex & Rory
Alex & Rory
Jillian Mayer & Adelaide Bannerman
Jillian Mayer & Adelaide Bannerman
Blue Skies at the 2020 Fringe Arts Bath Photomarathon
ICF was invited to propose a theme for the 2020 Fringe Arts Bath Photomarathon, so as an extension of the Blue Skies Conversation Series we asked participants in the Photomarathon to respond to the proposal that “Blue Skies is a way of imagining the potential for change in the midst of all that we are facing as a society.” View the online exhibition of the photos submitted on the FAB website.
The Blue Skies Conversation Series is made possible with Art Fund support