Joya: AiR / Kritha Makwana / IND
photo Simon Beckmann
Joya: AiR / Kritha Makwana / IND
"My time at Joya:Air was truly special.
The day I arrived, I could join other artists for a walk in the barranco and it felt like a significant occurring because the barranco, to me, was the most magical space there. The arrival into the core of the barranca feels like entering into a sacred space, you reach its core by engaging through different senses one after the other. I remember the lingering fragrances of wild lavender, pine resins, a citrus yet sweet note flower as I walked in, then silence started setting in along with visual cues of the imagination of water in the ravine. The filtered light guided me to one pocket in the area that I imagine to be the sacred container that holds the flow here. The rosemary and sage fragrances bring you back into the living spaces from the barranco.
This experience guided my work for the 2 weeks I was there. The work imagines a glistening flow-matter as the Infinite Source in the Barranco, that emerges by way of the ever shifting folds and layers, extending onto our bodies in the form of jewellery and transcending deep into the veinal network of our internal Barranco.
Donna and Simon have created this space with a lot of reverence for the landscape, and for the Cortijada’s story. It was lovely to hear their stories from India and other conversations which were also very insightful for me. There is something very pure about the place they have created which maybe difficult to explain. The beauty of the landscape spills into the living and studio spaces as constant reminders. The connections and conversations with other artists was also a big highlight for me as this was my first residency and the presentation I made before leaving gave me a great retrospective into my work and with discussions I could find areas to reflect on and also put more effort into.
I have a strong feeling that my experience at Joya: AiR has layers that will be revealed to me in the coming months."
Kritha Makwana
Kritha is a jewellery artist based out of Goa, India. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from CEPT University. Her interest in making accessories began in 2013 when she made a few accessories from mild-steel hardwares, which helped express herself behind an otherwise shy personality. Having experienced the subtle power of jewellery in the deep layers of her own being, she launched her eponymous label in 2015. Through the medium of metal she could connect to her lineage of carpenters and metal-smiths (called the 'Luhar-Suthar' people in Gujarat) and she feels that working with metals (not necesarrily jewellery) comes to her in a deeper way. She is currently experimenting with larger pieces beyond the human-scale of jewellery pieces.