Ur Eternity (2016-2019)


Excerpt from Ur Eternity:


"There is a cinematic, perhaps specifically film noir, quality to the dramatic lighting which Jiwa casts on his subjects. Trench coats, harsh flashes, and dark doorways are conceptualized as evidence, cast as apparitions in a sequence of fleeting contemporary mysteries that in turn make the act of viewing an ostensible exercise in their resolution. A bulging waxed canvas bag propped up in front of a stained white delivery van contains either a million dollars, or a human body. Perhaps it’s one of Jiwa’s faceless businessmen, being delivered to a trading floor for his first day of work. Hovering like a melody that never really quite lands, the photograph echoes a number of themes without fully committing to them: the quickening pace of change, deep state terror, the disposability of objects extending to humans under consumerist capitalism…" -M.L. Basque


"Some of these razor-sharp, harshly lit photographs might be hanging in a law office or a brokerage firm. Their scenes are drained of color, just like Midtown is, like Wall Street is. The city appears darker in these canyons. The shadows are deeper and richer. We follow the light as it dances around these chthonic corners of Manhattan. Reflections and flashes, lightning bolts striking skyscrapers. These pictures were taken after 9/11 and before the pandemic. They show a New York between two terrors. A city no longer quite there. With women in expensive furs. Advertisements for golden watches. Status symbols all over the place. This whole city is a cloud of floating status symbols. There is jewelry display after jewelry display. Leaves dancing in the wind..."-Dean Kissick