photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Tash Kahn / ENG

‘I like punctuation and I was looking forward to Joya: AiR being a sort of comma in my life, a pause in which to collect my thoughts and just be. And it was that and more. It was a place of total stillness and humbling landscape. A place of early-morning walks to ruined houses and coffee brewed to the sound of birds echoing down the kitchen chimney. A place of interesting conversations over delicious meals, and of many new friends.

I arrived without a plan and it took a while to settle into the new routine. My usual habit of ‘doing a Rauschenberg’ and walking around picking up other people’s rubbish was frustrated by the remote location and lack of colourful litter. Instead I collected rusty tin cans and old bits of wood, hauling them back to my studio for a series of ephemeral sculptures. I also took many Polaroids and failed at a big painting, but it didn’t matter. As the days went on all pressure disappeared and I relaxed into the ebb and flow of the new routine.

The total isolation was challenging at times, but it afforded a space to notice the little things – trails of busy ants creating lines through the dust, the ever-changing sky, and the light on the spinning wind turbine. The constantly-shifting dynamic as people came and went led to many wonderful connections and new collaborations. Thank you Donna and Simon for a wonderful experience.

Tash Kahn

Tash Kahn studied a BA in Fine Art at University of East London. She works with many mediums, constantly recycling and remaking, taking other people’s rubbish and making it her own. Kahn has exhibited both nationally and internationally, with a recent project at the Stone Space Gallery in east London that saw her collaborate with Alice Wilson for Talking Heads – an exhibition of artistic responses. Exhibitions include: Picture Palace (2020) Transition Gallery, London; Talking Heads (2019) The Stone Space, London; 2019 Sluice refresh, M100, Odense; Backyard Sculpture (2019) Domobaal, London; Modern Finance (2019) Thamesside Gallery, London; Citizen (2018) Swiss Cottage Gallery, London; The Mechanical Reproduction of Dust (2018) Stand4 Gallery, New York. In 2014, she co-founded the visual-arts project DOLPH, and has helped facilitate 22 exhibitions, making partnerships with two London schools, as well as universities including UAL Wimbledon and The Royal College of Art, and numerous artists in the UK, New York and Berlin. DOLPH provides an alternative way for the community to engage with art, as well as being an invaluable learning resource. She is also an editor for Penguin and Sluice Magazine, and has given many lectures both at home and abroad.

Joya: playlist / Tash Kahn

photo Simon Beckmann (with Frida the Joya: AiR Schnauzer)

Joya: AiR / Chiara Leto / ITA

“During my stay at Joya: AiR I decided I wanted to spend a fortnight away from civilisation and from all those distractions that can interfere with one's thoughts. This to me felt like a real privilege.

Throughout this time my intention was to keep an open attitude, refraining from approaching my work with a preconceived goal in mind. For logistical reasons but also to allow myself to think differently about my practice, I arrived with very little material and equipment. This forced me to move differently. I would usually forage from the landscape to create colours and dyes, but this time, influenced by the landscape, I was drawn towards the use of pigments from the earth and the nearby dried-out river bed along which I walked for hours.

It was the landscape to dictate my steps. 

I left Joya: AiR with very fond memories of all the people I was so lucky to encounter and a collection of pigments which I soon intend to use in a painting which will capture the essence of this magical part of the world”.

Chiara Leto

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Dianna Frid / USA

“While at Joya: AiR, I was able to merely begin to sort through dozens of photographs that I took while doing research at the Burgoa Library in Oaxaca, Mexico. As simple as this sounds, it is a daunting prospect for someone like me, who typically works hands-on-matter. With respect to the latter, I was happy to walk many miles around the Sierra Maria - Los Vélez where Joya: AiR is situated. In doing so, the matter of landscape—and the substances and lifeforms with which it is teeming—offered time to think about and sense the potentials of mud, clay, and time. I spent long moments observing ants of different clans moving relative mountains, sorting through leaves and dead matter, and getting on with collaborative life force. I noticed micro-climates as one ascends mountains and hills (of which there are many). There were smells and sounds new to me. Most of all the silence, the stars one moon-less night, and the bees. I came with a suitcase, a pencil, and a sketchbook. And left with less than what I brought. This was part of the experiment”.

Dianna Frid

Dianna Frid studied in the US at Hampshire College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Last summer she became full Professor in the Art Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she has been tenured since 2013. Early in her career she received several Canada Council for the Arts Awards (2000, 2008, 2009, 2012). She has lived in Chicago since 1999 and has been awarded grants from the Illinois Arts Council (2003, 2014), Artadia (2004) and 3Arts (2018). 

Most recently, she has exhibited her work at the DePaul Art Museum and the National Museum of Mexican Art (both in Chicago). She is currently preparing for a one-person artist’s book exhibit at the Alan Koppel Gallery (Chicago) and an artist-poet reading with Victoria Chang for the Dia Foundation in New York.

“A note on this playlist: “Tunes from Obituaries” is a cumulative playlist not based on predilections. Instead, it is comprised of musicians, composers, conductors, and producers whose obituaries I have come across in the New York Times. There are the household names, but this collection of tunes goes beyond that, and it is connected to my ongoing project “Words from Obituaries” (2010 – present)”.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Mirjam Debets / NED

‘In my work I try to playfully bridge the gap between urban life and nature. As I spend most of my time living and working in Amsterdam, it has been a very refreshing experience to reflect on this theme while being submerged in an environment that’s everything but urban.

With the help of Simon and Donna’s stories about the house and its surroundings and through the daily expeditions into the sierra, I felt like I really got to know the landscape. This, and how easy it felt to connect with the other artists makes it almost difficult to believe I only spent two weeks at Joya.

I had time to catch up with my inspiration, big and small: I actually had the time to get through a biological/philosophical theory I’ve been wanting to read -which turned out to be surprisingly relevant to the way I have been ‘generating’ ideas-, I studied the shapes and geometry of the plants below my feet and for the first time tried to catch my ideas in writing rather than images.

To share my experience with others I’m creating a small zine with the images and ideas I have been collecting during my time at Joya. Hopefully this way I will be able to hold on to the experience a little longer while diving back into my life in Amsterdam’.

Mirjam Debets

Mirjam Debets is an animation director, illustrator and VJ. Fueled by a curiosity about nature and stories about who we are as humans, she creates inviting and eclectic worlds and encourages you to explore them with an open mind. Her work stretches over a wide range of media including visuals for live events, installations, short films, illustrations and textile design.

In 2022 she co-directed the short animated documentary ‘Diafonie’, which will premiere at the Netherlands Film Festival in september. Her work was seen at Dutch Design Week, Museumnacht Amsterdam and KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival. She is part of Amsterdam based DJ collective Sentinel Island Disco as a visual artist and VJ. She created textile designs for the first collection of LA based luxury apparel brand LEJ.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Màrius Sala / ESP

Joya: AiR ha representado un antes y un después para mi momento vital. En un entorno privilegiado, en dónde se mezcla el paisaje, el ambiente de trabajo junto a otros colegas y el mimo que Donna y Simon ponen a cada detalle hace que sea un lugar de renovación interior y artística. Las horas de trabajo creativo han pasado volando y el tiempo de mi estancia me ha parecido fugaz pero me voy con la satisfacción de haber encontrado un camino de inspiración con el que voy a trabajar los próximos meses y haber tenido el privilegio de conocer y formar parte de la comunidad Joya AIR. Gracias por todo! Siempre os tendré presentes.

Màrius Sala es Director de Arte, creativo y pintor además de combinarlo con la docencia en diversas escuelas de Diseño y Artes visuales de Barcelona.

Joya: AiR / Marius Sala / ESP

Joya Air has represented a before and after for my vital moment. In a privileged environment, where the landscape mixes, the work environment with other colleagues and the care that Donna and Simon put into every detail makes it a place of interior and artistic renewal. The hours of creative work have flown by and the time of my stay has seemed fleeting to me, but I am leaving with the satisfaction of having found a path of inspiration with which I am going to work in the coming months and having had the privilege of knowing and being part of of the Joya AIR community. Thanks for everything! I will always keep you in mind.

Màrius Sala is Art Director, creative and painter in addition to combining it with teaching in various schools of Design and Visual Arts in Barcelona.

Joya: playlist / Marius Sala

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Sarah Wishart / GBR

“I didn’t really know what to expect from my fortnight at Joya AIR, as I’d never been able to devote any time to a residency before. The demands of full-time work and a part-time PhD plus a range of collaborative projects hadn’t left much time for that sort of focus.

I had deliberately avoided setting ambitious targets. Instead, I wanted to simply allow myself to spend time with my writing project – and the only target I set myself was that by the time I came home, I would have developed my writing processes and practice in some significant way.

This writing project I proposed focussing on first exploded into existence around three years ago now, just before I applied to Joya AIR in 2019. The project, like my 2020 residency, had been delayed by the chaos of the last two years, so it has been long awaited.

It has been a beautifully gentle fortnight, waking early I’d walk or hike or go for runs before the sun was at its fiercest, and then I’d amble up to my sunny writing studio above Donna and Simon’s kitchen, with its view of the hills, the wind turbine and an olive tree buzzing with wasps all day. Despite my terror of wasps, I grew used to enjoying watching them at work in the tree, with my windows open and mosquito nets keeping the terror at bay. I’d work on one or other aspect of my plans and then lunch and siesta and then usually buzz through some writing at the end of the day. I’ve never been able to do academic writing at the end of a day so this was a revelation. All the artists who were able would then gather to watch the sun go down every night, and we’d eat delicious meals together, talking of how our days had gone, our artistic practices and lives while watching satellites spin around far above us under the Milky Way.

I made many discoveries about my writing practice over the last two weeks and I’m glad I didn’t set myself a big number of words to have pursued, and most likely fail at achieving it. Instead, my hopes to create a space to sit with ideas and how I could take what I’d learn and apply it to a normal week at home, turned out to be achievable. But more than that – to be pleasurable. I also created space to read similar sorts of books to the one I’m working on and for the time to listen and read up on writers who’ve explored the craft of writing –like Alan Moore, Stephen King, Ursula K Le Guin and Vivian Gornick.

By the end of my two weeks – I’d read a book a day and finished my masterclass with Mr Moore. I’d also surprised myself by the clarity and speed of the decision to remove 15k words from the project and to go in a completely different direction. I set myself a target of 1000 words a day when a day was a writing day and completed 10k words by the end of my time.

I discovered (as I’d hoped and suspected) that the project was sound, is sound. But beyond this – the conversations and connections I formed in this time were as tender and special as the time I had to look at the way I worked. Simon and Donna and their fantastic incredible spaces enable us to create rich temporary communities. Joya AIR was worth the wait, and was an incredible experience, and I hope the small community I was part of during this time is not that temporary”.

Sarah Wishart

Sarah is a writer, researcher and artist with a Phd in how the documentation of live art might include the memories of audiences. She’s currently working in film, text, voice, textiles and collaborative practice. She also works as Creative Director for a human rights journalism/communications charity - Each Other and opened their Scottish office in Glasgow in July 2021.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Helmi Liikanen / FIN

“Seven A2 arcs of “better paper”, some pencils and sketch books. A packet of dry pastels which I had hand-picked in Helsinki trying to imagine how the colours of mid-July Spanish mountains would be like. I arrived to Joya: AiR with minimum tools that would allow me to shift into the mood of creative exploration and curiosity.

Joya: AiR has an honest beauty to its architecture, it is a space adapted to the climate and the history of the location. Maybe this made it easier to step into a dream of truthfully following one’s intuition in the daily work and enjoyment. After the day’s work everyone gathered to share thoughts over the dinner. The people I met and the moments spent together under the scorching sun and the stars ended up forming a big part of my experience.

During my stay I gained some clarity and trust in my creative vision. I regard the body as a thinking entity and the act of making as thinking. This has a lot to do with my background in hand-crafting (and in my love of Juhani Pallasmaa’s books). Sensing my environment and releasing my thoughts and observations in tactile and visual ways is in the core of my practice - be it designing fabrics or drawing or collaging.

The shapes that I “carved” on the paper while in Joya: AiR ended up resembling the mountains, the sun and the moon. The elements connecting to each other in a continuous dance of night and day.

I thank Donna and Simon and each and every one I met during my stay. You made it unforgettable.

-Helmi

Helmi Liikanen is a textile designer and artist living in Helsinki, Finland. In 2019 she graduated with MA degree in Textile design from Aalto University School of Art Design and Architecture. Her designs have been frequently featured in collections of Finnish weaving mill Lapuan Kankurit. Currently she works as a Technical designer at the lifestyle brand and printing house Marimekko, which she combines with her artistic activities.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Kit Ondaatje Rolls / ENG

‘Before I came I was so excited to have a month dedicated solely to creating, but my experience was so much richer than just that. The environment was profoundly nurturing. By this I mean the land, the people, Joya: AiR as a home, the food, the space, the freedom, Frida and Fou Fou, and the beds(!!)... I saw many artists come and go, and it was a pleasure to observe just how much impact every single artist had on the group dynamic. The cross-pollination of ideas, thoughts, references, and sometimes wonderful nonsense was fantastic and much needed :)

The month was ‘productive’ but not in the way I was expecting. As proposed, I danced, sung, hiked, climbed, and created peculiar creatures. Surprisingly, I only had two days of ‘existential bleugh’ where I questioned my artistic capabilities and concluded that I best resign forever. Until the evening’s festivities begin again and perspective is gained, quite literally — how can you not be humbled when watching a full moon rise over the magnificent south-easterly mountain in wonderful company. What a month. What a residency. Thank you’!!

Kit Ondaatje Rolls

Kit Ondaatje Rolls is an interdisciplinary creative, working at the intersection of ecology, the performative arts and culture. Ondaatje Rolls graduated with a BA in Environmental Sociology & Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh in 2019 and received her MA in Biodesign from Central Saint Martins last July. During the Master’s, her project ‘Blimey!’ won the MA Biodesign, Maison/0, LVMH Collaboration 'One Nature, One Future' and was exhibited at the IUCN Congress 2021 in Marseille, France. She was recently selected to curate the creative segment of SHE Changes Climate’s inaugural event at COP26, championing artists who celebrate the feminine, the diverse, the resilient, and the collaborative. Ondaatje Rolls was a COP26 panelist, speaking alongside CONFENIAE representative Verónica Inmunda and 70s rockstar Brian Eno and is working on her second book that she intends to take to COP27.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Elisabetta Giromini / ITA

‘One of the hits of my stay at Joya: AiR has been the night thunderstorm. From my window I could see the lightning chasing each other and hear the thunder roaring in warning. The rain was pouring down and the wind whistled. I had left both windows open and I too was part of that storm albeit lying comfortably in my bed. This is the feeling that the two weeks in Joya: AiR have left me. Although I was in the middle of a storm in my personal life and in my imagination, I was in a safe place from which to observe what was happening around and inside me. Joya: AiR is a place of silence and void where you can find your own space for creation. The colours, the scents, the sounds, everything allows you to focus on yourself and your work while immersed in a delicate but stinging desert landscape. Simon and Donna favour this process in an extremely natural way, their presence is never intrusive. Watching the sunset in the evening with the other artists and the dog Frida, having dinner together and chatting made the experience even more enjoyable’!

Elisabetta Giromini

Elisabetta Giromini was born and lives in Milan. She graduated in Political Science in Rome and her studies in Vilnius and internships in the villas of Buenos Aires date back to that period. She continued her studies in International Relations in Brussels, graduating with a thesis on the health policies of the Central African Republic that led her to travel with a female doctor. Among the experiences in over sixty countries, the most significant routes by land: from Ushuaia to the Amazon River; Trans-Mongolian from St. Petersburg to Beijing; Iran from Tehran to the island of Hormuz.

Her main profession is writing and managing international research projects as a freelance. In 2020 she created the blog in-giro.com to tell stories of people and places. Her guide on Iran is forthcoming. Hybrid is her second novel.
"I recognize myself in nomadic thinking, in not being able to take root physically as well as mentally and emotionally in a specific place. I am fascinated by the identities that spread horizontally between multiple places like some mountain willows that do not grow in height, but on the surface of the rocks, expanding. So I imagine my growth, and the growth of my characters".

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / fuchsia / FRA

“The 5 weeks spent at Joya: AiR were really quite inspiring. Connecting with people from all over the world, from all walks of life was an incredibly enriching experience. Having a studio to immerse myself in my project, sheltered from the chaos of life in Paris and constantly surrounded by a stunning landscape was really what I needed. I am grateful for the few weeks spent at Joya: AiR, the rich encounters, and the beautiful memories this place has gifted me with”.

fuchsia

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Caroline Areskog Jones / GBR

“To become immersed in the landscape, to observe where the light falls, where the flow of water draws its course, to listen to how the wind absorbs the sounds of the wild takes time.

By spending 7 days at Joya: AiR I took the welcome opportunity to broaden my senses, and the stark contrast to an urban life created an atmosphere where the days seemed to quietly lengthen.

Drawing as a means to investigate and map a space is fundamental to my rhizomatic practice. The freedom to explore the surrounding topography allowed me to capture an archive of visual and sonic field recordings to develop over time , whilst learning about its agregarian background and current project of conservation . Returning to the studio I created a collective of ‘field studies’ on paper using various textures, marks, methods and materials to eliminate the stark white of the surface. A body of work as initial responses to being in the land evolved , responding to the ecological patinas experienced or describing artefacts discovered whilst wandering.

Evenings provided a chance to gather and enjoy a sense of community and kindness, hosted so generously by co-founders and hosts Simon and Donna”.

Caroline Areskog Jones

Areskog Jones has a background in contemporary dance and physical therapy. Art Foundation, Distinction (1996) at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (UAL), London and BA(Hons) Fine Art 1st class CSM (2004) part time whilst raising 2 sons. MA Print : Royal College of Art (2019). Variety of group exhibitions, including Breathworks, MOMA Oxford (2020), Fragile Ocean (2019), MA Show RCA(2019), 'Eyes of Many Kinds' Southwark Park Gallery (2019). Upcoming to include ThroughObjects 'Nature Inspired' , Woolwich Print Fair, 'If only the sea' San Mei Gallery*. Residencies: Hospitalfield (Oct 2021)* Wild Islands, Hebrides (2019) Orleans House Gallery(2016). Moving image work :'World of Light' Auckland University of Technology(2021)* "Poetry and Culture Film Festival' Copenhagen (2021)*, Montreal Independent Film Festival (2021), Next Thing Moving Image Award (finalist) 2019. Signature Prize (finalist) 2019, Stanley Picker Tutorship (shortlist) 2019, Sheila Shloss Award Printmakers Council (2019), Szuzi Roboz Scholarship (2017), Charitable Arts Award (2016). Articles for Venti Journal (2021) *IMPACT print journal (2020), Pluralist (2019) - *in development or imminent

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Julia Aurora Guzmán / DMA

‘Centers here, centers there, unidentifiable 

Navels to be found. 

I made them, molded them and left them on the land, as potential homes for insects. 

Navels for Grave-like, Ana-Mendienta-like silhouettes that became ephemeral earth works, mirroring (our) nature. 

Particularly wonderful was the silence and the fluid creativity that Joya: AiR allowed, uncontaminated by expectations’. 

Juliaurora.com

 

Julia Aurora Guzmán is a Barcelona-based Dominican artist, working in the interdisciplinary field of art, architecture, and ecology, often through site-specific installations. Her work orbits around water, physical and emotional support systems, and centering forces as analogies for our personal balance. Materialized through sculptures, textile-works, photography, sound and performance, Guzman’s work represents our transient cycles, honors births and deaths, and tends to the present. 

She received a BFA in Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute (USA) in 2016, and an Associates degree in Fine Arts from the School of Design Altos de Chavón (DR) in 2013. Apart from JOYA : arte + ecología / AiR (Almería, Spain), Guzmán has had residencies at the European Ceramic Workcentre (Oisterwijk, Netherlands) and at Despina (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil). She has been a recipient of multiple work grants, including the Young Talent Award from Mondriaan Funds (NL), Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds (NL) and Stichting Stokroos (NL). Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo shows in Santo Domingo (DR) in 2017, Amsterdam (NL) in 2019, and Madrid (SP) in 2021, and in multiple group shows including Brasil, United Kingdom, and United States and the Netherlands. 

Guzmán is represented by Galerie Fontana (Amsterdam, NL) and Galería Daniel Cuevas (Madrid, SP), and she is currently a resident at La Escocesa (Barcelona, SP) and co-curator of the independent artspace CasCaDas (Barcelona, SP). 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Hannah Parr + Linus Maurmann / ENG + CHE

“We came to Joya: AiR to work specifically on a new video work. With reference to a dream, themes of consciousness, comfort, empathy, hard and soft powers, healing and nature, the story unties the restorative powers associated with hair and pine trees. The film unveils the potentials and paradoxes of the dream world, takes the role of seeing and observing as a vital part of world-making, and draws on sensation-based perception to engage with our natural surroundings.

The immediate land surrounding the house was more beautiful than anticipated, which made for ten days and nights of intensive filming. Nevertheless, working uninterrupted and intimately with the land that houses the residency was an immense pleasure”.

www.hannahparr.com

Hannah Parr (b. 1984, UK) is a Swiss-based artist. Her experimental practice in object art, design, sculpture, and installation questions formalism, social structures, consumer culture and addresses social survival and transformation strategies. Her works are based on specific self-developed working processes; for years, she has been collecting and sort-ing materials, typically from domestic or manufactured sources. Transforming ‘object’ to subject through the process of re-categorisation, displacement, and isolation, she speculates within a relative realm, where subtle interventions and quiet humour reaffirm the intellectual, virtuous, and emotional potential of materials, recovering their capacity as tools for critical analysis. 

www.maurmann.info

Linus Maurmann (b. 1997, Zuirch, CH) is an independent industrial designer. Trained as a carpenter and educated in industrial design at Zurich’s University of the Arts. His process-based practice relies on a close collaboration with artists and is often based on his interests in alpine sports and music. His design approach is driven by exploration and experimentation with materials, form and production methods, emphasizing the haptic qualities of production through materials. 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Jessica Bonnie Winters / CAN

‘While getting over some serious jet-lag, I became increasingly concerned about how I would find inspiration for my work, which is based solely on a landscape and culture that could not be anymore different than my interpretation of rural Spain. I came to understand that despite these differences, my interest and love for the land still remained, and that’s what I focused on. From my daily walks I began collecting photos of lichen, comparing and painting the different species from both Joya and my home in Canada. These paintings and ideas have completely hijacked the trajectory of my work for the foreseeable future.

Thank you to the artists I spent time with for welcoming me, encouraging me and sharing your stories with me, and thank you Joya: AiR for giving me the time and space to connect with the land´.

Jessica Bonnie Winters

Jessica is an Inuk from northern Labrador and works with paint and seal skin. (Inuk are the indigenous people of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic occupying Labrador, Quebec, Greenland, Nunavut, North West Territories and Alaska)

Awards
2021 - Arts and Minds Canada Invitational Artist in Residency Award, Tilting, NL
2021 - UNAAN Artist Program Grant, St. John's NL

Exhibitions:
2020 - Of Myths and Mountains, The Rooms
2019 - Nunatsiavut: Our Beautiful Land, La Guilde

No formal arts training - I am a self-taught/traditional inuit artist.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Nadège Mériau / FRA

‘When I arrived at Joya: AiR, I was struck by the lack of sound and light pollution (with nights so clear you feel closer to the stars) and an unusual sense of stillness. The light was almost too bright, sunsets almost too unbearably colourful and the singing of insects and birds almost too loud. The biodiversity there was so rich it felt like an assault to the senses. There was an instant feeling of joyful connection to the place.

So on I went, recording sounds on my walks every morning and evening, breathing and listening attentively. But what took me by surprise was the work I did in response to the beautiful studio space I was allocated. Somehow I felt I had to inhabit this space, and time, which I had been given. First I became fascinated by the resident insects and the sound they made as they went about their daily business, then I started to look at the view and the play of light flooding in through the window at different times of the day. I filmed it all, and spontaneously began to perform in front of the camera, which was something I had not planned.

If in the Night it Rains Tomorrow / Nadège Mériau

I enjoyed the natural structure imposed by the changing light and temperature. It was simply too hot to go out in the middle of the day and this provided time to rest and review what I had recorded and filmed in the morning.

The evening meals and talks with other artists provided stimulating exchanges and encouraging feedback on the new directions my work was taking.

I had intended to explore issues of care, self-care and medicine in relation to nature, technology and the arts by immersing myself in the wild environment, recording my embodied experience of the land (through film, photography and sound), exchanging with other artists, and reconnecting with Europe, after a long period of isolation. I did just that, and more’.

Nadège Mériau

Nadége completed an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries and the Conran Award in 2011, nominated for the Arts Foundation Fellowship and the Arles Discovery Award in 2012 and the Prix Pictet 2014. In 2016, she produced a participatory sculpture and an artist film for The Aylesbury As Home exhibition at the Geffrye Museum, with the support of Queen Mary University and the Leverhulme Trust. In 2020 , she was commissioned to make a short artist film and stills work for Nothing To Look But The Past, Tulca Arts Festival, with the support of Arts Council Ireland and Galway City of Culture 2020. Other recent shows include Fire: Flashes to Ashes in British Art 1692-2019, RWA Bristol, Auto//Fiction, Exhibition and Symposium, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art 2019, 209 Women at Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament and Impressions Gallery, Bradford 2019. Recent publications include xviii, stories of Tulca, Tulca publishing, 2021, SPUD published by Deirdre O’Mahony, Rot issue of The Learned Pig, curated by Julia Cavicchi, and Fire: Flashes to Ashes in British Art 1692-2019, Sanson & Company.

photo Simon Beckmann

‘My journey to Joya: AiR was applied for and planned all most 9 months prior. This gave me ample time and circumstances to strategize over what could be “achieved” and accomplished during my revered time there.

Very little of it came to pass, but was instead replaced by concepts, relationships, and revelations that were much more valuable. After the first few days of acclimating, work became much more organic and a natural flow of the days’ relaxed routine…ultimately renewing purpose. The spontaneous, authentic discussions and lasting friendships certainly have been the most valuable resource and will be packed away for future use. Donna and Simon have thankfully created a welcoming and necessary refuge that will have a lasting impact’.

Randy Akers

Randy Akers is a visual artist working on Skidaway Island, Georgia. He has shown at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, University of New Mexico's Harwood Foundation, Brownsville Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Anchorage Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Valdosta University, Masur Museum of Art, SUNY Genesseo, Florida A&M University, Marietta / Cobb Museum of Art, LaGrange Art Museum, Ormond Art Museum, and Maryland Federation of Art among others. Akers wass honored with a 2021 arts residency at Cill Rialaig, Ireland. Past residencies include Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Wyoming in 2019 and 2015 and Foundation OBRAS, Portugal in 2017. His one-person show, Road to Canaan, was included in the VIVA Florida 500. Work was selected by the Office of the Governor for The Art of Georgia, sponsored by the Georgia Council of the Arts.

In his past career, Akers directed and designed international television commercials, movie titles, music videos, and print for Fortune 500 companies. He has been affiliated with Curious Pictures (NY), R/GA Digital Studios (NY), Broadcast Arts, (NY), Yarra Films (Singapore), Kessler-Irish Films (Toronto), and AFI Films (Miami). Akers is a member of the Director's Guild of America, the Broadcast Design Association, and served as an advisor to the Delphi Conference exploring the convergence of art and technology. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Cazenovia College. He received his M.F.A. at the Savannah College of Art and Design; B.F.A, Chouinard Art Institute, California Institute of the Arts; additional academic work at Art Center College of Design, California State University Northridge and University of Oregon. Akers served on the board of Art Rise Savannah and Arts Georgia advisory council.

Akers is represented by Jane's Art Center, New Smyrna Beach, FL., L/Ross Gallery, Memphis, TN, J Costello Gallery, Hilton Head, SC, and Reinike Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

photo Simon Beckmann

‘Joya: AiR was a creative sanctuary. Being away from the hustle and bustle of daily life helped me gain perspective on many aspects of my artistic practice. The experience has been invaluable & provided me with the clarity needed to let ideas flourish. I engaged in stimulating conversations with fellow residents and was given the time & space to be productive in a non pressured environment.

During my time at Joya: AiR, I experimented with plans for a new body of work. Having finished a series of paintings before coming to the residency, I was at a creative crossroads.

The colours, forms and atmosphere of the desert have all influenced my work. I have brought back pigments, drawings & new ideas to my studio life in London. I now feel ready and prepared to begin a new series of paintings.

I feel honoured to be part of the Joya: AiR community and am so grateful to Donna & Simon.

I didn't recognise how much I needed Joya: AiR until I arrived. My only regret has been not staying there longer’!

Shayna Fonseka

Shayna Fonseka (b. 1994, London) lives and works in London. She received a BFA from Slade School of Art in 2017. Fonseka’s work is influenced by the urban and industrial landscape and explores a sense of place, displacement and placelessness. Her process involves taking photographs of deserted city squares and found objects in the urban environment during long walks, which she then transforms through various image layering techniques, digital studies and painting. Fonseka’s work expresses various emotional states through the use of vivid colour, texture, warping and shadow, to create a terrain that extends beyond the physical realm, into a hidden, more personal and mysterious one. In her work, highly textured surfaces contrast with defined forms to produce a flattened, distorted perspective. Patterns are duplicated and subject matter may appear familiar but displaced. The paintings reveal a profound approach to our everyday environment while investigating the tensions between our inner and outer selves. 

www.shaynafonseka.com

photo Simon Beckmann

‘There is something beautifully unexpected about Joya: AiR. Something that will surprise you each day whether it is the way time expands, or how it snows in mid April or the sheer vastness of the deserted paths you can venture on. There’s something to be said about the people you meet there too, the conversations you have over dinner, and the value of humans looking for a time and space to do creative work. There are many thanks to be awarded to Simon and Donna for providing a perfect location to get in touch with how expansive life, in all its many forms, can be.

Joya: AiR opens a door to connection, with oneself, with strangers and with the beautiful nature it is surrounded by. The two weeks I spent there gave me a lot of hope — and even if my path doesn’t take me there again, it will be a memory I will hold dear for a very long time. Thank you’.

Zade Boreas

Made Boreas has a background in biochemistry, environmental studies and food culture & identity. Her work for the past years has revolved around creating spaces that foster human interaction by bringing together people and their talents and so forth creating a community. She is the co-founder & owner of Lille Bakery in Copenhagen, she has been a part of the creative team of several events in Copenhagen (Grøent Market, Mercurial Sundays, Spring Together, Idle Spaces) and in Rio (Bananal, Junta Local etc). She is a reader and a writer, the non-DJ part of a DJ collective and have been living in several countries for the past 12 years.

photo Simon Beckmann

‘The 14th of April, I woke up at Joya: AiR to a cloudy sky that became more and more orange by each passing hour of the day. At around 4 pm, when it was tangerine in the atmosphere, we got the news that it was red Saharan sand blowing into Southern Spain from storm Cecilia. The next days, the rain washed away the sand creating beautiful patterns on the floor in front of the house. As an artist using mainly raw materials in my art, I couldn’t walk by without trying something. Handcrafted lokta paper pressed into the wet sandy ground became prints of the Sahara.

These last days tainted by this strange phenomenon felt surreal, but in retrospect, not as surreal as the place and the people I’ve met at Joya: AiR. Simon and Donna have created an oasis. An oasis for creativity and sharing that remained one, despite the desert winds and the rain.

Sarita Wallengren

photo Simon Beckmann

‘The space, to think, be and feel in such a pure environment. 

Founders Simon and Donna welcomed me into their little oasis. I have high praises for their commitment living off-grid, their ethos and life’s work related to art with sustainability, the environment, connection and history of species and people of the area is so inspirational. 

The works I have created here has been in pure flow, I had time and space to think and connect, to relate to my passion for the ‘leave no trace’ approach but creating three projects on site, on land and then removing them. 

These three projects surrounded the theme of Air and what it means in Ayurveda. As humans,  without Vayu ( air) we cannot breathe and this does not allow for Prana ( life force energy to come through).

The projects were painted on, printed creating memory with hands and paper appreciating the present moment, installed in a semi sculptural format. They included upcycled bed sheets soaked in acrylic water, dried, printed with washi paper, soaked in by upcycled paper form my studio, London which I brought up here, pastels, … Each project was filmed with me in and out of the context of my work , no words out loud, documented, written about in my notebooks, sketchbooks and on my online portal: Instagram. There will be an ongoing dialogue and continued approach to the SERIES: AIR practice online and if I am allowed back I would love to continue to explore it here again. 

Somehow and maybe unknowingly, Simon and Donna have helped to unlock the truest essence of me and my work without apology, with reverence for nature in a way I have only dreamed my work could be. 

It’s not surprising either than on this occasion all the creatives on this art residency were empowered, inspirational, leading women, living and being their truth. I have made beautiful friendships. We had fun each night, eating together as a Joya: Air family and then drinking red wine, talking, playing and watching movies together. 

Unforgettable. 

Thank you’. 

Crystal Fischetti