Joya: AIR / Jeanne Verdoux / FRA

photo Simón Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Jeanne Verdoux / FRA

“I arrived at Joya: AiR with the simple desire of working with nature and was hypnotized by the moonlike clay landscape. I immediately taught myself to process the wild clay to build some small vessels. By day 5, I had decided to build a human size ‘Female Vaisselle’, extending on a sculpture series in progress in my NY studio. It would be the largest sculpture I have build and would be made of wild clay collected and processed by myself. Its form would be based on one of my paintings representing a vessel in the shape of a feminine silhouette. The finished sculpture would be installed on Joya’s grounds. Because it would not be fired, the sculpture would naturally degrade and return to clay dust with time.

This project would require many pounds of wild clay, buckets of saved clean water from my shower, hours of hand building and drying time management. With the invaluable help of my husband, John Gibson, we quickly established a clay production routine. Every morning John would collect pounds of the purest white clay in the dry ‘barranco’, carry it back to the studio and soak it. I would remove stones, dry it in the sun, and wedge it. I would hand build the sculpture using thick coils, compressing them so the base of the vessel would support the weight of the upper part.

Joya’s natural white clay turned out  to be fantastic: smooth, flexible and easy to work with. Wet, it smelled like fresh mud and attracted insects to suck moisture from the sculpture. Dry, it would feel as soft as the human skin. On day 8, I had build the bottom half of the sculpture. It looked like an ugly planter. It was hard work and I felt discouraged at time, particularly when temperatures reached 37 degrees Celsius. But the thick walls of my studio/barn and the long Spanish siestas made it possible. Daily visits and support from Joya’s residents artists kept me going.

I completed the sculpture on day 12. On day 13, it was dry enough for John to move it out of the studio in four separate stacked pieces. We installed it on a field of dry white clay. Visible in the distance from Joya’s farm house, the ‘Grand female vaisselle’ now stands, looking towards the Velez Blanco valley. It merges perfectly into the Andalusian landscape. With time, the unfired sculpture will weather and go back to earth. This process will be documented  by Joya’s curator Simon Beckmann.

Living and working off the grid for two weeks, in a beautiful Andalusian farm house with a 360 degrees view on the sky and mountains, a community of supportive hosts and artists, delicious nutritious meals, and an endless supply of clay, was paradise to me. My time at Joya was a transformative artistic and ecological experience. With the exception of the carbon foot print of my travel to and from Joya, I produced art without using any energy or ressources other than my own body energy (and John’s) and the earth under my feet. I created a totally sustainable sculpture that I left where I made it for others to enjoy. This project will inspire my art practice and have an echo in my future work”.

THANK YOU JOYA, Donna and Simon!

Jeanne Verdoux