Artist and educator Dexter Orzsagh reflects on what he learned as he moved between drawing, writing and teaching during his residency in Antigua. Filmed during and after a Royal Drawing School residency, the film follows Orzsagh as he works with young students, listens to Antiguan residents, and develops large-scale drawings shaped by conversation and place.
He speaks about figuration and the human body as a way of engaging with wider contexts such as mythology, politics, race, gender, and climate change. For Dexter, the residency was as much about listening as it was about drawing, using journalling and conversation to understand what it means to be Antiguan and Barbudan, then turning those insights into artworks and bringing them back into his teaching.
When you’re teaching, you’re learning and unlearning everything you know as well. For me, education and my own practice are completely synergistic.”
Dexter Orszagh