Jessica Roes
Ashta, 2025
Movie 42min
Photography 110×70 cm
Kamakura, Japan
Work Description:
Ashta weaves together a 40-minute slow-motion film of the ocean in Kamakura and four selected photographs
capturing the delicate, fleeting imprints left on the sand by the retreating tide.
Created as a quiet meditation, the work uses the gentle rhythm of ocean waves as a form of healing, a familiar scene where anyone can pause, observe, and find stillness. Muted and slowed, the film and sand photographs open space for contemplation, inviting viewers to witness how water endlessly shapes, erases, and renews the shore, leaving behind traces that speak of time, memory, and transformation.
The work was created on Inamuragasaki Beach in Kamakura, known for its distinctive dark sand, rich in iron, a material once used in the making of swords and other metal objects. This black sand grounds the work in both a geological and historical resonance, its depth and weight contrasting the ephemerality of the moving tide.
The shifting forms of water are a recurring thread in J.Rosas´practice, a way of observing how landscapes and inner states are continuously reshaped and often left unnoticed.
The title Ashta echoes the sound of waves and recalls ashita, the Japanese word for “tomorrow”, suggesting quiet renewal and what lies ahead.
Jessica Roes
+39 346 7832902
artist info:
Jessica Roes
+39 3467832902
insta: jessica.roes.m
BIO
Born in Italy in 1994, Jessica Rosa is a mixed-media artist working primarily with photography and video within a documentary-based practice.
Her work focuses on subtle fragments of everyday life, exploring quiet spaces and emotional undercurrents, often capturing moments that feel unresolved or slightly uneasy. Rather than imposing predetermined narratives, she works through close observation, using light, texture, and small gestures to give shape and presence to fleeting experiences.
Nature as a form of spiritual guidance is an integral to her practice. Landscapes, water, and organic forms function as extensions of human presence and rituals, creating a dialogue between inner states and external environments that conveys structure, rhythm, and subtle growth.
Her practice is grounded in continuity and repetition. She is interested in how significance emerges over time through accumulation and recontextualisation, allowing layers of meaning and connection to develop gradually rather than being defined in advance.
insta: jessica.roes.m