photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Tim Southall / ENG

‘What an opportunity for an emerging artist, like me, to be able stay at Joya: AiR with our hosts Simon and Donna, two experienced artists Cora and Katerina and Dan an accomplished author/playwright.  Simon and Donna made me feel very welcome, providing a studio space, preparing delicious Spanish meals, sharing their experience of establishing Joya and their lives as artists. We all shared convivial meals, listened to each other’s talks about our art practices, fireside chats, and watched the World Cup together.

Every day, I had an early breakfast so I could enjoy walking in the Sierra in the clear mountain air as the mist started to lift and reveal the arid, stony terrain and panoramic mountain landscapes. My lack of art materials did not matter as I found that in the beautiful pine forests, rocky mountain tops, clay laden fields, almond plantations and deep barrancos that I was inspired to create land art with the materials to hand.

In this beautiful environment with its quiet stillness, I was able for the first time to experience ‘wild walking’ with no map, no compass and no footpaths walking where I wished and learning quickly to read the terrain and to observe the different shapes of mountains and other geographical features for future reference points; ironically the only time I became lost was when I was trying to follow a waymarked trail!  Walking every day I had the time and space to think about my own art practice and how it might develop in the future. The residency also gave me the time, with the support of my fellow artists, to think through my dissertation that seeks to discover whether the practice of contemporary artists has been influenced by their religious or spiritual beliefs.

It has been an unforgettable experience which has far exceeded my wildest expectations for my first residency.

Tim Southall

Tim Southall

A Bristol based mixed media artist, who enjoys working on collaborative, community and public art opportunities. His artworks reflect his life as a Quaker, career developing affordable homes and his wish to engage the viewer through his sculptures to observe the aesthetic and sustainable qualities of cardboard and other found materials.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Stephanie Kyek / Portugal

“I came to Joya: AiR with the intention of making an experimental short film, applying the concept of land maps to the human body. It was to be an extension of a previous work in residency.

On arrival, I was stunned by the silence of the valley. Ironically, I found myself more distracted in the peaceful Spanish countryside, than in the noisy city I came from. I began incorporating the wanderings of my mind into my work, by documenting the work/thought process. My initially experimental film started developing a surprisingly narrative arc and morphed into a documentary exploration of my relationship with the camera.

I’m always surprised at how residencies change my work, challenging me to evolve and stretch my practice in different directions. I certainly learned a lot about myself, and I’m incredibly grateful for my experiences in Joya, where I had the unique opportunity of being able to explore my practice without the pressure of time and to become intimately, most dearly, acquainted with my medium, the camera.

I warmly encourage future residents to let the valley inspire and challenge their work, as it did so beautifully mine”.

Stephanie Kyek

Born in Brussels to German and Portuguese parents, Kyek first started her artistic career in music as a preCollege student at the ZHdK in Zürich. Freom there she proceeded to studying cinema & moving image in Arco, Lisbon, before attending a postgraduate course in Norwich University of the Arts. Inspired by the combination of sound and image, she now work as an audio-visual artist, currently based in Lisbon. Her work has been awarded an honourable mention at Fnac Novos Talentos 2019, as well as a first prize in the open call “O resgate do soldado Brian” hosted by Balaclava Noir for the short film “Whale Song”. Her most recent films have been screened in the Cinemateca Lisbon, in the British Amateur International Film Festival and in Bad Film Fest '21. In collaboration with other audio-visual artists, she has also had the opportunity to exhibit films in Curtas Vila do Conde '21, IndieLisboa '21 and DocLisboa. Her work exhibits a strong emphasis on sound, very much influenced by her early education in music. Her interests tend to revolve around the topics of communication, water and female consciousness.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Hollie Teutscher / NZL

"I arrived to Joya after months of travel in Europe and Africa, and a somewhat tumultuous year behind me.  It was a stark change, sitting in the stillness that enveloped Joya. I welcomed it fully.  I expected to be more productive over the month I spent at Joya, but this time called for a lot of introspection, and as I walked through the ravines and forest every day, I reflected on my experiences and what that meant for my art practice.  Slowly I started to collect bones, seeds, thistles and thorns as I explored the dry unfamiliar terrain.  Gifted feathers, intriguing plants and rocks from the other artists, found their way into my studio. I started to unpick old muslin and cotton dresses and weave it all together.  Working only with what I had in my suitcase.

The experience of this residency was powerful for me. Simon and Donna have created an absolute haven for artists, while also facilitating, educating and encouraging.  I took away new connections, to both people and land, and a new outlook and understanding of my art practice. “

Hollie Teutscher

Hollie Teutscher is a multi-disciplinary artist from Auckland, New Zealand, working in mediums ranging from drawing, weaving, installation, sculpture, ceramics and inks. She explore themes of interconnection, cycles, patterns and energies present within nature through an enquiry into her surroundings’.

Education 2019 - 2021 Bachelor of Fine Arts Department of Fine Arts Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, Auckland, New Zealand.

Awards 2021 Winner: Gordon Harris Mid-Year Award, Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, Auckland, NZ 2021 Winner/Highly Commended: Eden Arts Awards, Webb’s Auction House, for Whispered Trajectories Exhibitions 2022 Group Exhibition, Eden Arts Awards, Webb’s Auction House, Auckland, NZ 2021 Group Exhibition, Whitecliffe Year 3 Graduate Show, Whitecliffe Studios, Auckland, NZ 2020 Group Exhibition, Artists Coming Together, Dakota, Auckland, NZ

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / writer Daniel Wade / IRE

‘At Joya: AiR, the true meaning of splendid isolation became clear to me. 

I’ve always worked best in solitude, and so the rugged tranquility of the Andulacian countryside surrounding the cortijo provided a welcome silence that I needed to work. In my experience, a drastic change of scenery has never failed to electrify my creative juices, and this change was no different. 

I arrived there in December, with an aim toward getting started on a new novel entitled ‘Tower of Silence’. I'd been making preparatory drafts for this project over the last few years, but, preoccupied by various other endeavours, I had yet to properly sit down and get it under way.  

Set in contemporary Dublin, Tower of Silence concerns a wide array of characters who find themselves embroiled in a nocturnal katabasis of revenge and reluctant criminality - and all underpinned by a premium of clipped, Dublin-infused profanity and amateur philosophy.  

My designated office in the cortijo offered a stunning view of the Velez Rubio mountains, a steel weather vane and a set of solar panels that followed the sun on its daily excursion. I could get up and have a coffee and work in the room’s natural light, the slow conversion of daybreak into dusk playing out right in front of me. Thus, I was ensured of ample natural stimuli. The arid, isolated and dust-clouded environ of pine trees, thistles and meandering trails that lured one further and further into the wilderness, so unlike the close-knit barometry of Dublin, helped clarify the rhythm of my characters’ thoughts, and amplify their often-savage veering between profundity and profanity. It is this veering that I have been trying, ever since I began writing seriously, to render explicitly on the page. At Joya: AiR, I finally felt like I’d made progress on it.   

It is no small irony that the novel is set in a milieu that is utterly divergent to that in which its first few chapters were written; yet this very incongruence aided its beginnings. The clear air at a high altitude, the dust clinging to my boots whenever I went on a hike, the sheer weight of history that seemed to simmer at every angle - none of it was lost on me. 

I have a lot of hope for this book. 

I don’t take hope for granted.’

Daniel Wade

Daniel has been writing seriously for over a decade. He writes poetry, drama, and prose. In June 2015, following his graduation from the Institute of Art, Design & Tehnolongy (IADT), his radio drama, 'The Outer Darkness' was broadcast on Dublin South FM. The following year, his spoken-word album ‘Embers and Earth’ was launched at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. His first stage play, a crime drama called 'The Collector', opened the 20th-anniversary season of the New Theatre, Dublin and was described as “a brutally convincing portrayal of Dublin City life” by The Irish Times. His second radio drama 'Crossing the Red Line' was broadcast on RTE Radio 1 Extra, and later won a silver award at the New York Festivals Radio Awards for Best Digital Drama. His work has won awards, including the Hennessy New Writing (2015), the Write by the Sea Award (2019), and the Eamon Keane Full-Length Play Award (2022). 2021 saw the publication of both his poetry collection 'Rapids' (Finishing Line Press) and his novel 'A Land Without Wolves' (Temple Dark Books).

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Carolina Forrs / FIN

‘The surrounding nature at Joya: AiR is very different to the nature in Finland, where I am from. Even the quietness when walking in the dried river, outside the residency, sounded and felt different. I spent twelve unforgettable days at Joya: AiR. The days consisted of exploring, documenting, writing, long walks, and collecting what nature had left behind in the surrounding landscape. My work focused on colour research, photography, drawing, and sketching what I saw and found.

The timing for my residency was perfect, since November is a dark, cold, rainy, and grey month in Finland. The weather in southern Spain was quite the opposite. The landscape surrounding the residency is very picturesque, and both the sunrises and sunsets are magical – not to forget the unbelievable starry nights!  

I really enjoyed the shared (and delicious!) meals with the other residents, playing with Koda and Frida, and living a slow paced life. Thank you so much to all residents and a special thanks to Simon and Donna. 

Carolina Forrs

Carolina has worked in multidisciplinary projects together with historians and business students. She has been active in writing for the Finnish fashion magazine Gloria as well as done styling jobs for clients such as Vogue Arabia and Finnish knitwear brand Arela. She has experience from H&M in Stockholm and Eckhaus Latta in New York, where she worked with knitwear and womenswear. Her work has been featured in Vogue Italy, Elle Finland and showcased at H&M Design Award, at Copenhagen Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Katherine Fawssett / GBR

In no particular order some of my favourite things about my wonderful stay at Joya: Air…

Darkness and sunlight

The almond Trees and grasses

Sunset and the stars

Pomegranates and honey

The Barranco & having my own darkroom 

Making Photograms again

Great Company

Delicious Meals cooked by Donna and sometimes Simon

Euphorbias and Syrian Firs.

Rocks, roots and clay

Silence and underfloor heating

Cyanotypes with the perfect shadows

Olives

Learning about Irrigation Systems

Mapping the land

Observing planting trees preparation in dry landscapes

Time , time to read

The place itself

Katherine Fawssett Photographer and Planting Designer 

photo Simon Beckmann

I know there is no straight road
No straight road in this world
Only a giant labyrinth
Of intersecting crossroads

Comprendo que no existe
El camino derecho
Solo un gran labertino
De encrucijadas multiples

extract, “Los puentes colgantes / Floating Bridges” from Suites

by Frederico Garcia Lorca

It has taken over three years for me to complete a residency at Joya Air - due to circumstances beyond any control. 

Arriving at night, crosscountry from Granada to Vélez Rubio, past the castle at Vélez Blanco - a white dust road meanders into the Sierra Maria-Los Vélez Natural Park - a stark landscape silhouetted against the star filled sky. Perhaps the very effort of arriving is part of the allure, and the warm hospitality that harbours in the expansive land where all are free to walk, think and make. 

Through the medium of photography, drawing, walking and installation, my work investigates what it is to be a part of nature, how to establish a reciprocal relationship with it while recording and taking note of detail. I arrived with a box, some pencils, notebooks and a camera. Every morning I would rise early to wander, initially exploring the barranco (dry riverbed) that channels flash flood water from the hillside to the valley, then up through almond and olive terraces to deserted farmsteads. 

Simon had told us that there had been very little rain in the area since April and that the land was particularly dry following summer heatwaves across Europe. Andalucía is one of the most vulnerable regions in Europe to climate change and without careful land and water management desertification of this region will intensify.

My instinct was to collect rock, old tins, roots, seeds, snail shells and broken objects discarded in the landscape and bring them back to the studio to draw, photograph and, where cracked or broken - repair. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by applying a lacquer dusted with powdered gold. As a philosophy, it regards breakage as part of the history of an object and the repair remembers the fault rather than make it disappear.

I have returned to the UK with a collection of material that feels like the start of a body of work and an imagination reignited by the experience of being embedded in a new and remarkable place.

Thank you Simon and Donna for creating a regenerative haven in a spectacular part of the world.

Kelly Hill

Kelly Hill is one of the co-founders of Culture Declares Emergency, a growing community of creative practitioners concerned about the dire state of our living planet. Since launching in April 2019, over 1000 individuals and organisations have ‘declared’ an emergency as part of a movement demanding systemic change to support life on Earth.  Kelly works closely with Writers Rebel - a group of novelists, poets, screenwriters and academics who use the power of words to claim a safer, fairer future for all the planet’s inhabitants – human and non-human. Most recently on the development of the Paint the Land projects that link high-profile writers with well-loved and emerging visual artists to create landscape graffiti with a powerful ecological message to address the climate and ecological emergency. 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Cora Jongsma / NDL

Fragements of the dikes

“It is of the essence of life that it does not begin here or end there, or connect a point of origin with a final destination, but rather that it keeps on going, finding a way through the myriad of things that form, persist and break up in its currents. Life, in short, is a movement of opening, not of closure.”

― Tim Ingold, Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description, 2011―

photo Cora Jongsma / barranco de cajar, Sierra María Los Vélez

‘The dikes I encountered in the gulch near my temporary dwelling place, Joya Air, have fallen into disrepair. They should hold water that brings life, but because they have fallen into disrepair they can no longer do so. In a clumsy attempt I tried to repair the dikes, but of course, this was an impossible task…’

photo Cora Jongsma

Cora Jongsma

Cora Jongsma / fragment of wool and clay

‘The fragments of the dikes have become a reminder of what was so dear to me, a life that has been lost. The dikes are a reminder of what they once did; the retention of water which is the source of life. The essence of life, however, is that it flows, slips through your fingers and evaporates in the heat’.

Cora Jongsma / firing fragments of clay

Cora Jongsma / fired earth

‘Within my artistic research process, I always try to find parallels between making felt and land cultivation. Inspired by the traces in the surface of land, cultivation and the entanglement of humans and soil, I keep my artistic work going. Now, during this residency in the mountains of Andalusia, I made the loss of my dear husband visible and tangible in my artistic work’.

Cora Jongsma

Cora Jongsma

Cora Jongsma

Cora Jongsma is currently working as lecturer-researcher Arts & Sustainability at the Hanze University of applied sciences in Groningen.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Ana Garcia Alcocer / MEX

‘I embarked my self for a four week journey at Joya: AiR.

It was in my bucket list , to be part of an Artist residency somewhere in the world since I was starting as a young Artist many years ago.

This is my first time in one.

My experience in Joya was about reconnecting with my creative self again, without judgment and letting my whole spirit feel free and flow.

Every morning after having my hot lemon tea I walked throughout the woods, paths , mountains and barrancos connecting with earth it self. Felt like magic.

My mind and soul were overwhelmed by the beauty of it’s imense landscapes , the silence , the sound of the wind and sheep passing at times.

It was thanks to Donna and Simon and their big generosity, kindness and gourmet dinners that I felt at home very quickly and be able to deal with my personal challenges at this time.

I was able then to inmerse my self in my studio after collecting some rocks and branches. Inspired by the power of nature.

The sense of Time seemed so different here. I had it all for myself,being able to process and explore what I needed for my practice and be able to create. And I did!

Taking this time for my self to make art was very rewarding.

I thought a lot about my pourpouse and intenton in life.

Everything came to me in a very natural way, ideas and projects I started to be continued back home.

I completely lost the sense of time.

I had the privilege to share this experience with unique and amazing fellow artists , learned an appreciated their work and thoughts. We had some great conversations and laughs over dinner. And a couple of earthquakes as well!

Joya was an experience beyond my expectations . Joya is a real and unique “Joya” ( jewel in spanish) I feel it trasformed many things under my skin in different levels.

I just hope the energy and peace that I have received from this experience will stay within me for long time.

I will miss everyone including Frida the giant and beautiful schnauzer and Fufu the goat 🐐who also enjoys taking long walks and eats lots of carrots as I do!

Gracias Simon y Donna because your love for art and life have made all of this possible.

Gracias, gracias Joya-Air por tanto 🤍!

Ana Garcia Alcocer

Nacida en Ciudad de México
Licenciada en Arquitectura Universidad Anahuac, Ciudad de México
Estudios de Arte en la Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze Italia y Brera Milano
Estudio de Técnicas pictóricas School of Visual Arts NYC US

Beca para jóvenes creadores del FONCA en CDMX

Exposiciones individuales y colectivas en México, Nueva York, Holanda .

Colecciones del Museo Cuevas, CDMX
Collection Televisa CDMX

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Connie Morey / CAN

‘My studio practice explores the themes industry, labour, and ecological displacement (what it means to be separate from the earth as home) through performance with sculpture and textiles documented through photography and stop-motion video. While at JOYA AiR, I worked on the Canada Council funded project The Mending Ground, which began in the clear cuts and old growth forests of Vancouver Island, Canada on unceded Indigenous land (Pacheedaht and Malahat Territories). The Mending Ground explores how colonial approaches to the earth as a commodity resource rather than kin result in ecological displacement and environmental loss. It explores how pioneer species (moss and lichen) and carbon rich soils provide models for relational integrity and paths to ecological restoration.

I initially applied to JOYA AiR because of the inspiring work being done by Simon and Donna to replenish the soil and ecosystems on site through considered development of water catchment systems and the planting of thousands of diverse local species. I was fascinated by the agricultural history of the area and while on residence, I spent time in the barranco, and at the old well, observing nature, almond trees and being awestruck by the kaolin and limestone rich soil.

Time in the studio, sharing and connecting with other artists, and learning about the history and restorative initiatives happening at JOYA AiR had a profound impact on my work as an artist. The building, studio, natural environment, Donna and Simon’s amazing cooking, and dinner time conversations provided nourishment on many levels that allowed me to take creative risks that will continue to feed my studio work for years to come’.

Connie Morey

Connie Michele Morey's studio practice explores the experience of home as ecological interdependence. Through site-specific performance, and participatory sculptures documented through photography and video, her work questions the relationships between ecology, displacement and belonging. Connie's studio practice is influenced by childhood experiences living rurally off the land, while being surrounded by family traditions of masonry, construction and textiles. Her family history co-mingles settler and Indigenous identities (Scottish, Swedish & Anishinaabe), and her studies in sculpture, ecology, philosophy, post-colonial studies and art education, have impacted her interest in displacement and the politics of marginalization. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of Lethbridge, an M.Ed. in Art Education and a Studio-Based PhD from the University of Victoria. She currently lives as an uninvited guest on the unceded territories of the Xwepsum (Esquimalt) and Lkwungen (Songhees) Peoples where she also teaches Sculpture, Drawing, Community Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Victoria, Vancouver Island University and Camosun College.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Tammy Flynn Seybold / CAN

I found my time spent at Joya: AiR was marked by tranquility coupled with creative and intellectual awakening.   The spare but gorgeous environs - the cascading terraces, the wide open blue sky, the minimalist building itself - all contributed to an environment that was at once contemplative and invigorating.

Considering myself a mid-life emergent artist, I had wondered if I would feel at home at a residency with other mostly younger, very impressive artists.  I needn’t be concerned.  I made close artistic and personal connections with the other artists at Joya: AiR that I hope will last a very long time.  The diverse oeuvres of the accomplished residents:  everything from poetry, weaving and photography, to film and sound capture, provided endless inspiration and surprising areas of intersection.

While at Joya: AiR, my daily routine began with a grounding yoga and meditation session.  Having forgot my yoga mat, I chose to use a large piece of raw canvas for my practice instead.  I selected a new location each morning, always about 250 m from the JOYA residence, but moving clockwise about 30 degrees each day to total of 12 locations.  This practice allowed me to experience the land and its changing use and form in the quiet and introspective way that it deserved.

It was from this more contemplative place that I was able to draw unexpected connections between my 12-part experiential circle to the work of British Economist Kate Haworth who developed the concept of a Doughnut Economy - one in which the success of a society is judged not by an ever-rising GDP, but by a society’s ability to provide the 12 essentials of life (Health, Food, Water, Housing etc) while keeping in mind the ecological ceiling - the limits to which these can be provided to all without causing undo harm to the planet.   

Wanting to draw parallels to my 12-day meditation on the surrounding land of JOYA,  I used the same piece of raw canvas I used as a yoga mat to create a paint and thread-based piece, including the geographic coordinates of each meditation, and the shape of the rough diagram of the Doughnut Economics model.  Without time, space and quiet to pursue this 12-day physical and artistic journey, I don’t think I would have seen the parallels to these economic or sustainability ideals.

Additionally, the time away from both the proverbial and very real noise of everyday life allowed me to pursue my previous series of works in a new and inspiring environment.  The time in my large and wonderfully minimalist studio was conducive to small- and large-scale painting, and the comfortable bedroom and common areas were a perfect place for me to work on the embroidery elements of my pieces.

Evenings were spent sharing a bit of wine and catching up with the other artists, providing warmth for the soul and creative spirit.  After that we would enjoy a delicious communal meal made with care by Donna.

Coming to JOYA was an experience of a lifetime for me.  Especially after the isolation of Covid years, I was so grateful to be somewhere to share ideas, experiences and laughter with other artists.  I will carry away with me a profound respect for this once-abandoned land, and for those who inhabit it - whether for 2 weeks, a month or for life.  Thank you Simon and Donna for this very special, productive and memorable time.

The final slide of my presentation:

Lessons from my time here at Joya: Art + Ecología:

Trust both instinct and the intellect when trying to recapture creative energy and flow

Hold a place for routine and comfort ( i.e. time sketching, yoga etc.)  can lead to unexpected connections down the road - It grounds the body and quiets the mind enough to hear the creative signals and connections, including those from others.

The more grounded foundations you create through routine and meditation/hiking/yoga creates a solid foundation from which you can stretch and take risks

Trust the process

Even greater sense of gratitude

Tammy Flynn Sybold

M.A.C. 1990 Master of Art Conservation, Paintings Specialization
Queen’s University Art Conservation Program, Kingston, Canada.

B.A. 1988 Bachelor of Arts, History of Art, University of California at Berkeley.

CONSERVATION EXPERIENCE

1990 - 2018 Conservator of Paintings
Tammy has had a 28-year career as a paintings conservator, with a specialty in 20th Century and Contemporary Art. She has worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Power Plant in Toronto and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

HONOURS Dean’s List, University of California at Berkeley
Dean’s Award Recipient, Queen’s University 1988 and 1989
Samuel H. Kress Fellowship Recipient, Faelleskonserveringen, Denmark, 1990.
Getty Grant Recipient, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1990.
Samuel H. Kress Fellowship Recipient, SFMOMA, 1991
Samuel H. Kress Fellowship Recipient, SFMOMA 1992.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Iana Mizguina / UK

It was a two-year-long wait for me to get to Joya: AiR after Covid travel restrictions. I had never been to Spain before, and I got first impressions of the fantastic landscape of the region on the journey from Granada to Velez Rubio. It was magical to catch the beautiful scenes of the Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada and its monumental mountains and hills during a 2.5-hour journey on the bus. A group of us were picked up from the town of Velez Rubio, and during the drive to the Cortijada Los Gázquez, I started noticing how remote the residency location was going to be.  And I couldn’t wait to begin my two-week adventure.

It took me few days to fully comprehend how quiet the environment was. It must have been the most tranquil place I have ever been to. From day one, other artists and I started going for exploratory walks. These unique shared experiences were so crucial to developing my work at Joya that I couldn’t recommend them more.

Every day I took the absolute pleasure of working in a studio which was allocated to me. This spacious studio allowed me to make separate spaces for darkroom printing and a desk for working with digital files. I absolutely have to mention how much I enjoyed experiencing terrific views and saying hello to a goat, FouFou, every day on my way to the studio. The tranquillity of nature and lack of distraction allowed me to get 100% immersed in my work.

I came to Joya: AiR with somewhat a plan to develop work from a proposal I applied with a couple of years prior. However, I also decided to give myself the freedom to make work in response to the beautiful environment of Parque Natural Sierra María-Los Vélez. Therefore, I started to take field notes from every walk. Most of the time, I would walk with my camera. However if I did walk without the camera I would observe and absorb the details of the landscape.

Iana Mizguina

Iana Mizguina

Iana Mizguina

Iana Mizguina

Iana Mizguina

Iana Mizguina

Coming to Joya: AiR, one of my definite aims was to find a way to make work more sustainable and reduce the waste. I ended up working with a mint tea developer and fixed my prints in salt. I also used Caffenol to develop my B&W negatives. Being a messy alternative process enthusiast who doesn’t mind when things are inconsistent, I have thoroughly enjoyed letting go and introducing an element of chance to my photographic practice. It was even somewhat of a disappointment towards the end of my two-week residency, when I started achieving consistency with my printing.

Iana Mizguina

Iana Mizguina

Iana Mizguina

Joya: AiR became a vital place to contemplate who I am as an artist and where my work is taking me. It was an excellent way to get a break from everyday commitments and immerse myself in reading and making. The experience made me think about my ambitions and gave me more courage. It was particularly inspiring to share work with other residents as we all came from different backgrounds, experiences, and media. Every night we would have a fantastic meal cooked by Donna, share a glass of wine, and talk about our work, lives and, most importantly, our daily experiences.

Huge thanks to Simon and Donna for being superb hosts and sharing the incredibly inspiring lifestyle at the Cortijada Los Gázquez with us’.

Iana Mizguina

Originally from Helsinki Finland, Iana studied Chemistry/Biochemistry in University of Turku for a few years before finally following a dream of studying art.
She has lived in UK from 2014 and graduated from BA Photography course in University for Creative Arts Farnham and graduated from MA Photography Arts University of Westminster. Apart from finishing her MA course she works/volunteers part-time in museums (V&A and Rural Life Centre) and is also a self-employed artist with a small studio in Farnham.
Recently she has been part of few group exhibitions outside university, including CLUSTER Photography&Print Fair in February in London, and also participated in collaborative project as part of Lishui Photo Festival in China in November 2017. In August 2019 she participated in Dartmoor Summer School of Photography week long residency.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Zoe McIntosh / CYM

‘Stunned by white noise, bristly flora and hidden movements of fauna, a fortnight at Joya Air kicked off an entirely new focus to my ecological investigations - petrology.

Settling into the remote landscape was at first daunting, although living remotely in wales, the sound of a nearby waterfall fills the magical silent void that exists in Sierra Maria - Los Velez. 

I discovered a lot about my writing practice, garnering inspiration from the beautiful array of international artists, from the diversity of landscapes, deep down in the ravine formed by the gota fria and high up in the hills to which you can get 360 degrees view of the entirety of the natural park.

Path-Way is a short poetry anthology studying the geological formations that shape the surrounding landscape - from caves, to ravines, high mountains and fire breaks - composing poetry in response to my bodily interaction to the environment that surrounds me, using binaural sound recordings to investigate subtlety of movement’. 

Zoe McIntosh

After travelling Australia in a camper-van when she was eighteen years old, Zoe decided to move away from her home in the Wye Valley and study a foundation in Marketing Communications in Edinburgh. In 2020, she began a Bachelors at London College of Communication, UAL and she is currently in embarking on a Diploma in Professional Studies, a year out of her studies to home in on and realise her artistic practice. In September-October she was travelling to Italy to learn about and partake in permaculture, agritourism, medicinal herbs and farm management in response to climate change.

She manages the Humble Soup instagram page, creating content and has since onboarded 5 people to help in the growth of this. They are soon to host their second event at double the number of guests at the first one and are currently collaborating with artists on a new project 'Kitchen Draw' giving them the space to talk about their artistic practice, love for soup and power of the words.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Ada Pilar Cruz / USA

“So it was magical arriving to an isolated and scenic landscape. There seemed no way out but with a car or a very long walk in the heat. It was hot.  The sunsets were spectacular, then there was the star studded sky and a perfect bench to lie down and stare upward.

When I am working in a new studio, particularly in a new place, while traveling, observing, learning, I draw from the experience.  Each place gives me an energy of new insights and I make work in relation to the place based on what I have found there, what I have seen and the pieces of its history that I can glean.  

My plan while at Joya: AiR was to make paper.  I had made paper out of seaweed that had washed onto the shore when I had been in a place by the ocean.   Now I was going to be in an arid environment and I wanted to gather dried fibrous plant material (I imagined cactus) to make a different kind of paper.   Interestingly, I did not find cactus-type plants.  Instead, I found pine, grass, herb, and thistle.  The amazing blaze of blooming poppies was out of the question.  I walked and gathered then I boiled the fiber for hours, and I pounded the material into…not quite pulp as I gave myself blisters in attempt.  I had brought dried abaca pulp that I re-hydrated, and mixed with the gathered and cooked materials.  In all I made 95 11”x18” sheets of paper.  I would screen the pulp and lay it out to dry in the heat of the day.  The papers would dry within an hour. 

These papers are beautiful.  

Now I have another idea”.

Ada Pilar Cruz

Ada is from New York with family from Puerto Rico. Her education and life have been in both places. She has an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art where she worked with ceramic sculpture and printmaking. She is one of the founders and a member of Buster Levi Gallery, in Cold Spring, NY - which is run by artists. She exhibits in this gallery every two years.
She is also a member of a non-profit print shop in El Barrio, NY, called Rafael Tufino Print Shop - part of Taller Boricua.
In her capacity as an artist, she is a Museum Educator having worked with MoMA for 25 years, and now she teaches as an educator with The Drawing Center in New York City.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / group residency / Manchester School of Art / Manchester Metropolitan University / ENG

Joya: AiR is once again delighted to host Manchester School of Art / Manchester Metropolitan University after a few years break (thanks to the pandemic). This time led by Dr Dave Griffiths (Senior Lecturer and Section Head, Art Postgraduate) and teaching assistant Anna Clough, as Brigitte Jurack (Reader and Head of Sculpture/Time Based Arts), who has traditionally brought student to us is exhibiting in HOME Manchester. Her exhibition ‘Fieldnotes’ and I quote…

A series of diaristic drawings of rocks with compressed fauna or marine life, and fungi, are shown together with photographs of collaborative happenings with Manchester School of Art students, on land that has been degraded through intensive monoculture and water shortage or excess. Whilst the drawings depict geological time, the photographs document moments of re-imagining, being in the land(scape). Produced in two vastly different European climates, Dovestones in Greater Manchester and one of the most arid, Joya: arte + ecología / AiR in southern Spain, they function as an homage to water, an increasingly scarce natural resource.

The students, as always, are eclectic and super enthusiastic investigating every mountain and valley experimenting with land based installation, moulding clay, weaving dry grass, experimenting with alternative photography techniques, embroidery, stone carving and much more.

It has been great to bring this collective force of nature into the natural habitat of the high sierras of Almería.

We look forward to next year…

And in their absence they have left their sound… Spotify Manchester School of Art at Joya: AiR 22 playlist

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Holly Friend / ENG

‘Joya: AiR was a far cry from my usual pace of life in Hackney, London, where I can typically be found rushing around, doing everything I can to push 'thinking' and 'writing' to the bottom of my priorities. In rural Spain, the only distractions available were petting Frida and going for long, meandering walks, giving me ample (physical, mental, emotional) space to both edit and solve the existential problems I was facing with my novel.

My favourite thing about Joya: AiR was the positive boredom it manifested. Suddenly, I found myself in a place where I could wake up late, procrastinate, read for hours in front of the fire, confront a posse of local barking dogs, chat and eat and laugh, all while claiming bursts of creativity as they arose throughout the day. There was no guilt attached to doing, or not doing. Then there's the erratic weather (rain, snow, sun) and the slow, convivial dinners, fuelled by wine and absorbing conversation with new friends that made my time at Joya: AiR impossible to forget’.

Holly Friend

Holly Friend is a trend forecaster and futurist whose work revolves around unearthing the weird and wonderful aspects of consumer behaviour. As the former deputy foresight editor at London-based strategic foresight consultancy The Future Laboratory, her work ranges from researching and writing about cultural trends conducting ethnographic consumer research.

As well as being quoted as a futures expert by the likes of The Guardian, The Times and Dazed, she's consulted on projects for some of the world’s leading brands, including Google, Reebok, Diageo and Spotify, presenting insight-packed keynotes for clients and events around the world.

Holly completed her debut novel, Veneers, in 2020; exploring the power structures of social media and how digital spaces are changing the narrative around consent. She's now working on her second novel.

www.hollyfriend.com

University of the Arts London / Art for the Environment Award recipient Daniel Ginsburg / residency report

photo Simon Beckmann

University of the Arts London / Art for the Environment Award / recipient Daniel Ginsburg

Residency report.

Joya: AiR report for AER 2022

Daniel Ginsburg

MA Photography

Graduated 01/22

London College of Communication

Residency dates: 15th – 28th of July

“Leaving for Joya: AiR was the first time I’d left the UK since the pandemic began. This was the year in which it seemed all British people got tired of staycations and clogged up airports and motorways trying to get out of the country. I had taken trains across Europe before, and so when AER and Joya: AiR suggested that they would prefer for me to arrive that way in order to keep my carbon footprint low, I leapt at the chance. I wanted to feel like I was truly traveling, to watch the countries pass me by and the world expand. After completing an MA course that was almost entirely online which found me developing a slow, urban, domestic practice, I was excited to see how it would begin to evolve once faced with the wider world – a nature reserve that felt like a frontier of climate change, a place where the death throes of the natural world could be felt – and fought – first hand.

I love long train journeys, and Europe’s network of incredibly efficient, interconnected, and cool trains blow the UK’s out of the park. I spent the best part of 3 days just travelling and watching the scenery fly by. It was the middle of summer, and so the heat was far too oppressive to really be outside in, so my impressions of my stopovers were brief or under cover of night.

I was the first artist of the season to arrive at Joya. I was immediately struck by the smart passive design of the building, after sitting in air-conditioned trains and sleeping in air-conditioned hostels for the last couple of days. The temperature was in the upper 30s, but the thick walls and the use of shutters kept the place cool and, when needed, breezy. It made me think about the smart ways we can live in harsh landscapes without requiring a large carbon footprint to provide us with comfort. The landscape could best be described as dry and spiky, but the sheer immensity of insect life meant that there was never any silence – just a constant pleasant buzzing, the rhythm of life.

My photographic practice utilises non-toxic materials, and so I began experimenting by making prints with caffenol solution, and keeping my water use to a minimum. This process is much slower and less predictable than when regular darkroom chemicals are used, but I vowed to stick by and master it despite its slowness often being frustrating and restricting. Still, it was better than having to walk around too much with my camera in the unforgiving heat.

Daniel Ginsburg

It was once the other artists began to trickle in that I realised how incredible an experience this would be. We could, and did, spend hours chatting and sharing influences under the milky way, shooting stars, and satellites.

The residency came at a frightening time for Europe. For 2 days while I was there, an unprecedented heatwave caused temperatures to soar back home in the UK and in parts of France to more dangerous levels than in my patch of Spanish desert. Crops and houses began to catch fire. In Spain, wildfires were spreading at higher rates than normal, and crops were failing. In creating work about the Anthropocene, it felt strange being in a safe oasis – though I knew my location was more precarious than it felt.

Daniel Ginsburg

As I’m prone to do, I looked to the future and at myth. At the new incredible images of deep space coming from the James Webb telescope that made the stars feel closer, stranger, and more interlinked to our survival as a species than ever. I looked at the chaos and burning our science had wrought on the Earth, like the direct result of what Prometheus started by stealing hungry fire from the gods. Like the result of a child pointing the magnifying glass of science into the reckless tinderbox of complex systems ecology. I created images by burning film negatives directly, using reflections and magnification and wasteful machines and camera lenses.

Daniel Ginsburg

But, I didn’t want to just burn things. It went against my practice’s commitment to wonder (over doomsaying), and so I hunted the shady pine forests for inspiration…

Daniel Ginsburg

  Out here in the wild I felt more alone than I’d ever felt – so far away from civilisation and so much in the uncaring  hands of nature. I’d see figures often, my brain expecting to see a person but instead it would be a tree, a rock.

Daniel Ginsburg

Daniel Ginsburg

Daniel Ginsburg (view to Joya: AiR)

The next pieces I made were an exploration of this animism my brain had begun ascribing to things just by virtue of being out in the wild. I played a kind of pareidolic Pokémon Go where I hunted down chimeric natural forms and captured them. I thought of them as kinds of trolls, which when caught in the knowing light of the sun are turned to stone. In some stories the sun is replaced with the blinding ‘truth’ of Christianity which is, to me, the peak of anthropocentrism. I was reminded of the Ursula le Guin short story The Author of the Acacia Seeds (2015), which I began to come back to again and again, about the future study of animal linguistics which alluded to a possible future study of phyto- and geo-linguistics. And so, each of my photographs were accompanied by a photogram made by the essence of the photograph’s subject, scattered randomly on the photographic paper as if in a form of divination to where it may be decoded, in several decades, centuries, or millennia, as language. A quotation from the subject.

Daniel Ginsburg / hand printed using caffenol

Daniel Ginsburg / hand printed using caffenol

I’d brought with me the book The Web Of Meaning by Jeremy Lent (2021) about integrating ancient and indigenous wisdom with contemporary science. My work has always leant a lot on abstract organic forms, and I’d been looking for more ways to hone in on the fractal structures. By placing leaves directly into the enlarger, I found that I could create images out of these.

This was a whole playground of fertile ground. Fractals make up everything in the natural world (the flow of energy of fluids, geology, stars,) but can also be used to understand politics, urban planning, the process of consciousness. I wanted to stress and explore this human connection to fractals and to see where it would lead. The pictures I created were fascinating and brimming with potential, made up of criss-crossing layers of familiar and unfamiliar forms and patterns. I knew that my time of freedom and experimentation had been fruitful, and that all of these ideas would continue swirling around in me once I had to return home.

title: anima 1 / Daniel Ginsberg

title: anima 2 / Daniel Ginsburg

That was where my Joya: AiR journey ended. Refreshed and with ideas and inspiration brimming within me, I found myself back at home. Though the location and beautiful natural landscape of Joya are undoubtably stunning, the things I’ll carry with me are the incredible connections I made there. Days of silence interspersed with incredible discussions. Fascinating people who had made their way here from all over the world for different reasons, with different disciplines. I’ll also miss the incredible food, the warmth and kindness of Simon and Donna, and the welcoming licks from Frida. I’d like to thank the AER team for gifting me the change to escape the pressure of making and to be able to slow down, breathe, and absorb inspiration from the environment, in what was truly an unforgettable experience.

Daniel Ginsburg / hand printed with caffenol

Daniel Ginsburg

References:

• Le Guin, Ursula K. (2015) ‘The Author of Acacia Seeds’, from The Real and the Unreal: Selected Stories from Ursula K. Le Guin, Volume 2, Gollancz: London

• Lent, J. (2021) The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, Profile Books: London.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Carrie Foulkes / GBR

‘In the arid landscapes of Sierra de María-Los Vélez I communed with olives, grapes and pomegranates as well as some tiny flowers with striking hues of purple and blue. Realising that I was craving physical work, I found purpose and pleasure in a morning routine caring for baby pistachio trees, carting wheelbarrows full of sawdust-light sheep poop to fertilise the tender saplings. Frida the hound and Fufu the goat were spirited companions.

Every evening I saw the waxing moon rise over the mountains and knew that it was dinner time. We gathered around the long table outside to share Donna's incredible meals, to drink wine and talk beneath the stars. It was a great joy to celebrate my birthday with new friends.

The rare space and time for contemplative and creative practice bore unexpected fruits. I think it may have been at one of our dinners that I was reminded of the saying: a wise person knows they'll never sit in the shadow of the tree they plant. This idea became an animating theme of my time at Joya, inspiring a performance called Tending, in which a solitary figure walks out into the desert with a watering can. There's some kind of hope in this action, this image.

Carrie Foulkes

Carrie Foulkes is an artist, writer, researcher and complementary therapist. Her studies in philosophy, bodywork and multidisciplinary arts inform her thinking and writing on subjects including illness, care, and the mind-body relationship. Carrie is a doctoral candidate in the DFA Creative Writing programme at the University of Glasgow.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Zelda Solomon / ENG

‘The advice that was passed onto me about Joya: AiR was to not focus too much on planning something specific, but to respond once you’re there. I found that a daunting prospect because that meant I would have to relinquish a lot of control. I then wrestled with how I could even begin to bring my culturally specific practice to Velez Blanco and Joya: AiR in a way that didn’t read as ownership.

Genuinely listening and responding to the surroundings and my place within them proved to be the best route I could have taken in that respect. The landscape and its stories; Simon and Donna’s embedded practice; and the other artists I am so grateful to have met inspired me a great deal in ways I never could have anticipated. I’m glad I was present with it all, because the work I produced from that space of awareness was surprising and spilled out with ease. I often find myself circling the same familiar buoys in my writing and wider work, and Joya: AiR pushed me to welcome more in.

Much of Joyas magic is credit to Simon and Donna, who have facilitated such a rare creative environment without a trace of competition or judgment. And particular thanks to Sophie, Aga and Amber who made my time there so special. It’s an experience I’ll treasure for years to come’.

Zelda Solomon

Zelda completed her undergraduate degree in History of Art at Edinburgh University in 2021 and has recently completed an MA in Race, Media and Social Justice at Goldsmiths College, London. Her undergraduate dissertation focused on the Asian cyborg within the context of Anti-Asian hate crimes in response to coronavirus, and a condensed, fictionalised version of her research that utilised the screenplay-format was recently published by Peanut Press, Edinburgh, and can be found here :https://www.peanutpress.co.uk/product-page/taking-over-by-zelda-solomon.

She has been freelance writing non-fiction for a number of years now, and was previously the Culture and Politics editor for Woman to Woman and was previously a creative copywriter for Agora Digital -- a digital platform that profiles female and non-binary people working in Digital and New Media art. She is now editing for independent publisher 9vtbackslash5’s new queer poetry anthology. Additionally she was the BAMER Liberation officer for her student theatre and sat on the Deconolonising the Curriculum board for the Edinburgh College of Art.
While her interests lie primarily in anti-racism and writing, she has also worked with theatre, film and performance. During the pandemic, she created a short film with her co-producer Camilla Anvar for the RUMAH@Khai all-Asian showcase exploring Asian-ish identity, which can be found here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSyBCs1oLm0&t=12s. She also received funding from Edinburgh University to put on her own satirical exhibition with live performance art in 2020, and recently made a short film to support an essay for her masters which can be found here : https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/666002988.

Joya: playlist / Zelda Solomon

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Sophie Gibbings / USA

‘My background is in alternative process photography, and I have always made work about nature and the body and the parallels between the “two bodies” – nature’s body and the human body. I came to the UK from California, to do my Masters in Contemporary Photography at Central Saint Martins. I arrived at Joya: AiR in the summer between my first and second year of the course. Since arriving in London, I stopped making representational images and moved towards thinking about the phenomenology of being in nature. I am now more interested in making art WITH nature, instead of ABOUT nature. I use sustainable photographic materials as well as natural materials found in the landscape. When I arrived at Joya: AiR, I was in complete awe of the beauty that surrounds. Simon and Donna have a mission of bringing culture to nature. So much of my creative practice is centered around bringing people back to nature through art. My practice begins with a conversation with the materials before the collaboration can begin. I listen to the materials and ask permission with immense gratitude for their participation and offerings. While at Joya: AiR, I collaborated with the materials that surrounded, creating assemblages, Land Art installations, and performances all done outside, in the landscape. It was important for me to install my art outside to have a conversation about this return to nature through art. I am interested in applying the ideas of regenerative agriculture to talk about regenerative art. It is my hope that my art can create a pathway that leads the participant back to nature and that people will begin to care more about our Mother Earth through this meaningful exchange. Afterall, all our “bodies” come from nature and return to nature, we are all one. Reciprocity is key in the climate crisis, and this is my way of giving back to our beautiful Earth.

Sophie Gibbings

Sophie Gibbings was born in Santa Barbara, California (1994) where she spent the first 18 years of her life. She received her BFA in photography from Lesley University College of Art and Design in 2016 (Formally The Art Institute of Boston). Sophie is currently pursuing a Masters in Art in Contemporary Photography: Practices and Philosophy at Central Saint Martins (2023). She lives and works in London.

Most recently, she has exhibited her work at The Chainstore, London, UK, Grayspace Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, The Mills Building, San Francisco, CA,  Harvey Milk Photo Center, San Francisco, CA, Omi Gallery-Impact Hub, Oakland, Carroll and Sons, Boston, MA, and The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO. Her most recent performance was titled Picture Gallery Helen Frankenthaler at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK.