Reimagining Joya: Amy Starmar (analogue photography), Simon Beckmann (cement sculpture), Phil Barton (prints & mud installation), SRG Bennett (CNC prints), Maritina Keleri (3d prints), Tere Chad (wax maquette), Silvia Krupinska (found objects installation), Marianna Heilmann (large scale print), Becky Lyon (print). Thames-side Studios Gallery (installation photo)

Reimagining Joya is an exhibition inspired by the experiences and artistic responses of a group of artists who have all participated in Joya: Art + Ecology / AiR residency. Joya is a multi-disciplinary arts residency, which offers a place to develop creativity in the natural environment of Andalucía in Spain. The curators, Olga Suchanova, Tere Chad and Barbara Slavikova, selected a body of works which explore the way we inhabit, survey, feel, and relate to the natural landscape and its living creatures.

The exhibition took place at Thames-side Studios Gallery (Unit 4 Harrington Way, Warspite Rd, London, SE18 5NR) between the 26th August – 11th September 2022. During the period of the exhibition artists hosted a series of workshops and public events.

“Cultural activities in abandoned and denuded places are the key to landscape restoration and combatting climate change” (Simon Beckmann, Co-Founder & Curator
of Joya AiR).

Reimagining Joya: SRG Bennett (CNC prints), Maritina Keleri (3d prints), Tere Chad – Olga Suchanova – Mariana Heilmann (participatory installation), Silvia Krupinska (found objects installation), Marianna Heilmann (large scale print), Tere Chad (wax maquette), Olga Suchanova (painting & solargraphs). Thames-side Studios Gallery (installation photo)

When we live in disconnected realities where all our needs can be fulfilled through a click on our smartphones, we tend to forget how much our natural landscape is suffering. A group of
alumni from the MA Art & Science, from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, invite us to connect with the ecosystems we inhabit. Some artists are recreated the works they developed at Joya, but others are presented what they have developed since their visit to the residency. The responses are diverse. They include attempts to measure landscape using new technologies, replication of living systems and collective behaviour, the pace of the sun and time, repurposing waste, poetry recital, oral memories and walking experiences, as well as feeling the land with our hands through land art expressions. Despite their diversity, all artworks showcased intend to reconnect us with nature and pursue more sustainable ways of living.

As Simon Beckmann describes Joya AiR:
“By making energy from the sun and the wind, and sustainably using resources we have created, we have built a co-evolutive project. One that benefits systems ecological and creative. The art is embodied in this place for it gives access to the inaccessible, the foundation of creative thinking. It is only through collaboration artistic and ecological that we can meet the challenges we face. And today, Joya approaches a pinnacle in its history for in collaboration with Life Terra Foundation we are planting Joya’s entire 20 hectares with thousands of native trees and shrubs, restoring our connection with the earth, restoring the climate and making space for nature.”

Reimagining Joya: Hannah Scott & Juana Flores Vegas (audio piece & tryptic), Simon Beckmann (cement sculpture), Amy Starmar (analogue photography), Phil Barton (prints & mud installation), SRG Bennett (CNC prints), Tere Chad – Olga Suchanova – Mariana Heilmann (participatory installation). Thames-side Studios Gallery (installation photo)

Artists, during their visits, often change their creative processes. The arts have the power to instigate and inspire social and cultural change, opening up new possibilities to imagine more sustainable presents and futures.

The MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins is ten years old this year. Students have been drawn from arts, science and a diverse range of other backgrounds to work together at the interface between art and science. Human relationships with nature and the land have been a recurring theme explored on the course, with the Joya: Art + Ecology / AiR residency an important catalyst for experimentation, research and conversation with nature. Here alumni of both course and residency showed work inspired and influenced by these engagements.

Tere Chad (wax maquette)

Reimagining Joya: Silvia Krupinska (found objects installation), Phil Barton (mud installation), Marianna Heilmann (large scale print), Heather Barnett (projection), Olga Suchanova (painting). Thames-side Studios Gallery (installation photo)

Silvia Krupinska (found objects installation)

Silvia Krupinska (found objects installation), Marianna Heilmann (large scale print)

Marianna Heilmann (large scale print), Heather Barnett (projection)

Heather Barnett – Interference Systems: or how to study ant (projection)

Amy Starmar (analogue photography), Phil Barton (prints & mud installation)

Phil Barton (mud installation)

Hannah Scott & Juana Flores Vegas (audio piece & tryptic), Simon Beckmann (cement sculpture)

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CURATORS: Olga Suchanova, Tere Chad, Barbora Slavikova

ARTISTS: Heather Barnett, Phil Barton, Simon Beckmann, SRG Bennett, Tere Chad, Mariana Heilmann, Maritina Keleri, Melanie King, Silvia Krupinska, Becky Lyon, Amy Starmar, Hannah Scott and Olga Suchanova.

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Art, Creativity, Environment, Nature, Photography, Science, Sculpture