Joya: arte + ecología / Aguazero Award
In the autumn of last year Joya: arte + ecología launched what is going to be one of four awards each year. Each award sets out an ecological agenda for artists whose practice might already conform to, or one which may inspire them to work towards, that notion. The recipient of the award receives the opportunity to take up a two week supported residency at the home of Joya: arte + ecología, Cortijada Los Gázquez.
Our first award is called Aguazero. We invited submissions in water-based medium on or with paper.
The award requested submissions to reference the contrary character of climate change. For example, increased desertification and the escalating effects of weather events such as flooding and soil erosion etc.
We asked that the work should be based on observation, experience and invention. It must be as involved with the process and materials of painting/drawing etc. as with the response to climate change.
We asked for works that invited close scrutiny and, like environmental events in the world around us, reveal themselves gradually and steadily over time, prompting reaction and renewed contemplation of the ecological challenges the world faces.
The deadline was New Years Eve and we received a lot of very good submissions that our panel of selectors spent all of January reading. Finally, we made the very difficult decision on choosing the artist we would like to invite. She is the Japanese artist Kaori Homma.
Homma’s images are not made by pigment sitting on the surface of the paper but a technique usually associated with secret correspondence used in the past, called ‘aburidashi’ in Japanese.
‘Invisible Ink made with lemon juice is used to draw images, slightly altering the delicate balance of paper, once exposed to heat, images are burnt into paper as an integral part of its structure, which are then washed through in water to rid of the trace of acidity.
The resulting image contains a level of fragility and notion of death within it by nature.
In my work the connotation of transience associated with the methodology is important as it highlights a position at the opposite end of spectrum from the monumentalism, even through the actual physicality of the drawing endures.
The importance of this notion of ephemeral has been acutely felt though the recent Japanese Nuclear disaster triggered by the earthquake and tsunami, as it has highlighted an environmental landscape on the brink of a catastrophic paradigm change, and the fragility of our existence on this planet.
Being a Japanese artist, the above notion is no longer simply a theoretical concern but personal’.
Kaori Homma
Artist and selector Melissa Marks observed…
‘Homma’s work expresses its unique relationship to ecology and nature with a sensitive awareness of both material and idea. The AGUAZERO awards special criteria of observation, experience and invention resonates in Homma’s project through it’s expansive view of history and current events in climate change in combination with a strong commitment to process, drawing, and interior exploration’.
We look forward to receiving Kaori Homma at Joya: arte + ecología at a date to be announced later this year.
The Aguazero award has been made possible, in no small part, by the generous support of St Jude’s limited edition prints. We would like to thank them for their generous assistance in making this award happen.
We would also like to express our gratitude for the interest and support given by all those who entered the Aguazero Award.
Should anyone be interested in supporting the Joya: arte + ecología award next time we would be grateful for a contribution towards the artists European travel expenses and in return, if you so wish, we will more than happily promote your sponsorship along with the award.
