"My time at JOYA: AiR was spent exploring, filming, writing and performing in the immense landscape that surrounds the beautiful house. I made a new work here, although writing this on the last night of the residency I cannot say what the work is – I have spent the entire time generating material and am yet to start editing, such is the reluctance to spend time in front of the screen. It is a fantastic environment for working and thinking, the seclusion offered by the national park is invaluable. Simon and Donna are excellent residency hosts, encouraging dialogue between residents but allowing everybody the time and space to develop their practices in the best way they see fit. Oh, and it is impossible to not mention Donna’s amazing cooking – I eagerly await a JOYA Recipe Book"!
Sam Williams
“The hot sun as my witness: blind sun, blond bones, bleeding hills – put thistles and mud on the wounds, roll in the dust like a coydog, scream into those anthills, run fast without looking, close those eyes, shut those curtains, high sun, high strung, big snakes in the road, big desert, big sky, clouds zoom by…”
David Wojnarowicz
Sam Williams is an artist filmmaker based in London, where he studied MA Sculpture / Moving Image at the Royal College of Art. He has shown work nationally at institutions such as Tate Britain, V&A, Sadler’s Wells, Outpost and Baltic39 and screened internationally in countries including Egypt, Russia, Germany and Norway. As part of the audio-visual group Emptyset he has performed across Europe and has shown collaborative works with Rosemary Butcher MBE at The Place, Nottingham Contemporary and Akademie der Künste (Berlin). He was awarded the Relax Digital Commission (2016) and the Stuart Croft Foundation Award (2017) and has been artist in residence at Baltic39 (Newcastle), Cité international des arts (Paris), JOYA AiR (Andalusia) and ArtHouse Jersey. This year he received an A-N Professional Development Bursary to initiate choreographic workshops for non-dance artists, writers and curators. Sam is a founding trustee of the Rosemary Butcher Foundation where he will help oversee the preservation and promotion of her archive and legacy.