📍Trinidad
Vivien Elizabeth Armour is a multidisciplinary artist from Trinidad & Tobago. Having grown up around the world, Vivien explores the relationships between culture, tradition, ethnic hybridity, bodily autonomy and sexuality.
Vivien is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada (2020) with a BFA major in Visual Art and minor in Social Practice & Community Engagement and received Honorable Mention for the Landon Mackenzie Graduation Award for Visual Arts. Vivien is an awardee of the 2020 CATAPULT Lockdown Virtual Salon Grant.
HOT SUN CCA: Vivien, your current ceramic works on HSCCA are very inspired by the natural environment and ecosystem of the islands: Whale Tale ; Blue abstract plate and Harvest platter. I see a marked difference in your initial works 2021/ 2022 (large scale paintings), on several levels: thematics, scale, palette, media, technique. Could you tell us about the current direction of your work: what are you exploring & thinking about these days? And, how do both of your practices (painting and sculpture) inform each other ?
VEA: I’ve always approached my art practice from a multidisciplinary lens and enjoy exploring a number of mediums. My background is in theatre and film, both in front of the camera as an actress and a singer, and behind the camera as a production designer and cinematographer. I think as I transitioned from film into a larger focus on visual arts, my work was very narrative based. With my painting practice especially I explored themes of identity, womanhood and the juxtaposition of belonging and not belonging. A lot of my sculptural work in ceramics also explored these themes through the lens of folklore. I’m still very interested in these types of stories and questions of how we as humans relate to each other and the spaces we inhabit. I’m inspired as well by nature and the textures and colours and I definitely bring that into my ceramic work more than my paintings which often live more in the surreal.
Vivien E Armour in studio with HOT SUN Curator, Adeline Gregoire. Port of Spain, Trinidad 2023
After moving home, in the isolation of the covid 19 pandemic, my practice became a lot more insular and the drive to work through frustrations in a very physical way became a lot stronger, which I think is what pushed me to focus on ceramics more, and especially pottery. There is a problem solving aspect to pottery that gets you out of your head, and just into the work that has been very therapeutic for me. I think focusing on function and ergonomics helped me grapple with everything else feeling so out of control. Now that life has gone back to “normal” sort of, I can feel my interest veering toward the experimental again.
There were some projects I had begun working on before the pandemic that bridged the gap between my painting practice and my ceramic practice that I’m excited to begin pursuing again.
Image: Bazodee (2017) Vivien E. Armour, Image courtesy the artist
HSCCA: How would you describe the developments in your work over the past year?
VEA: The biggest shift for me this year has been my focus on teaching techniques and studio ergonomics to improve the educational aspect of my practice. My own work has taken a bit of a backseat to that, and while I have been producing, showing and selling, I’m eager to make space again (in my new space) for more experimentation and even collaboration with other local artists. I’d really like to get back into sculpture and expand and hybridize my functional pottery practice. And I miss painting! I haven’t made any new paintings this year and that’s definitely going to be a priority for me in this new space.
Blue Abstract Platter (2023) Vivien E. Armour, Image courtesy the artist
HSCCA: Could you share some of your major challenges AND achievements over the past 12 months?
VEA: Major challenges – Just developing and running a studio by myself. Ceramics is a lot of technical work and while very rewarding, there is a lot of grunt labour involved and balancing that with teaching, producing and all the administration headaches that come with running a business has been a lot. I’m hoping to train an intern in the coming year.
Major achievements – My classes have been so rewarding. I love teaching people how to work with clay and seeing them flourish. I’ve had some particularly amazing students over the last couple months that have really reminded me of how fabulous it is to just play. And my biggest achievement is having grown my business enough to buy a house. It’s a huge and very exciting milestone for me.
HSCCA: What is the biggest lesson learnt over the past year?
VEA: Patience. I take on big projects and I can get very caught up in my own head, tunnel focused on them and be pretty hard on myself for whatever inevitably doesn’t go exactly to plan. And openness. Reminding myself that I don’t have to do it all alone. I can ask for help.
Vivien E Armour in studio with HOT SUN Curator, Adeline Gregoire. Port of Spain, Trinidad 2023
HSCCA: What’s next for you?
VEA: The past year 2022 into 2023 has been very intense with a lot of growth and learning. I’ve grown my pottery business, teaching classes and developing my brand locally with a number of commissions, markets and exhibitions. I’m ending the year with my biggest project yet – having purchased a property and renovating part of it to be the new home of Vivien Elizabeth Creative, a very warm and functional environment. I can’t wait to launch!
Also, I’ve been looking into a lot of residencies for either traditional Japanese pottery techniques and practices, as well the absolute other spectrum of Mexican and Indian textile practices. I really want to bring a lot more curiosity and mixed media into my work moving forward.
More sculptural works by Vivien E. Armour and her artistic practice here
Whale Tale (2023) Vivien E. Armour, Image courtesy the artist