Joya: AiR / Chika Annen / JPN
photo Simon Beckmann
“First time I arrived to the residency, I was overwhelmed by the uninterrupted space.
Dried clay soils, spiky plants and buzzing of bee; somehow I found them subtle and tender
even though there was such a contrast with the environment where I came from.
The great nature swallowed me and I fell asleep in complete darkness and silence at the first night.
Sounds emerged from the quietness.
Lights illuminated surroundings from the darkness.
To see the process of defining the world, I started to face myself.
Noises echoed in my head and I kept reflect my practice and myself in the studio.
Perhaps I was confused vividness of the vast nature.
Different scales of space and solitary existence of myself different sense of time.
Each element changed my perceptions interactively.
All the components which constructs my world fell apart.
Then I realised how I possessed massive information which I had no idea what exactly is.
I collected things as I did in my childhood. Stones, wood and rusty metal container; Smells, textures, colours and shapes.
Individual details evoke something else from my memories, experience.
The figurative connections among objects reminded me of the different structures of metaphysical world.
During the residency, I worked different media such as painting, sculpture, photography and performance to reconstruct objects from fragments surrounding me. Through the practice, I explored the pathways among objects, environments and me as a processor. The process made me dive in multiple layers of my own cognitive system.
It was very strange and alienated feeling to get back civilised environments after the residency. The residency opened me new understandings towards the relations to the world and me and also myself. The noises in the city tends to drown sounds to but now I can always remember the subtle but clear voices of objects that I found in Joya: AiR.
Great thanks for Simon, Donna, all lovely hosts and artists who inspired me and I am looking forward to return the place again”.