A1B1C1D1

If not….Absence

Art fl ows over time, oscillating across scales of ideas on what we are and what we want to be. Art is a creative struggle to be, to know, and to understand. It is a process of abstraction that reveals various forms of realities or expressions. An open-ended process of consciousness coming to know itself, and a creative practice that unfolds through physical and intellectual acts, to be folded again in visual elements that can be seen, heard, or felt through material entities. Through art one gravitates into a domain where one encounters the inner most layers of the manifold of existence.

This collective exhibition by four emerging artists can be seen to fulfi l these facets. It refl ects the search of the artist to reveal, consciously or unconsciously, the existential conundrums of life, and an attempt to come to terms with its constructs. It is a yearning to overcome diffi culties, an effort to answer or accept inexplicable mysteries. Mysteries can only be envisioned through simple metaphors. This is why this show is entitled tumbleweed. For like tumbleweeds, art can be a metaphor that in its fi gural simplicity speaks attributes which reveal profound aspects. In popular readings of texts, tumbleweeds are a cliché representing inactivity or desolate situations; a resultant silence which succumbs to helplessness or passivity.

In nature, however, tumbleweeds have a different meaning and function, for they are diaspores made of dead tissues of plants or spores which emerge out of arid contexts, detaching themselves from their roots to fi nd a new context where they can prompt new possibilities of being. Tumbleweeds represent a progression that professes itself through being. They are structures that fall between boundaries, between the duality of life and death, being and non-being, moulded and driven by the elements of nature, carried away to new territories and ecologies.

They recall potentiality, movement, and action – the cycle of conclusions and new beginnings – the unfolding of new progenies. These are some interesting attributes that these artists and their art represent in this exhibition - a progression akin to the telos of tumbleweeds. In their very own particular way, they refl ect a process of detachment from their previous conditions, moving forward to new terrains. In their own individual ways these artists are all in a state of fl ux, exploring their existential state of being, articulated through their aesthetic concerns, and replicated it in artistic forms.

Intertwined with the concept of tumbleweed one may fi nd another maybe more abstract idea, namely, absence. Absence is a strong sentiment cutting across the expression and thoughts of these artists. It’s a strong underlying notion which surfaces when one refl ects on different personal levels of messages of these artworks. It is an absence which calls for answers or memories of what was or is absent; it is an absence which does not refer to a fi xed destructive notion or a missing object. Nor does it refer to negative connotations akin to nihilism, for it is an absence propagating a pregnant void, a state of mind which comes to understand the borders of what ‘is’ and what ‘might be’. It is a method of coming to know what is left and what remains. What was and what can come to be out of what is not present. It is a means that proffers a creative attempt to act upon our limitations - a visual succour for the travails, faults, troubles and diffi culties presented by life itself. Thus, absence reverberates also a sense of presence, a state of being, where one fully comprehends one’s own restrictions.

The drawings of edifi ces presented in this exhibition reveal an interest for the reality of structure, a concern to construct substantial monuments or edifi ces, revealing a desire

to actualise buildings which are still waiting to be manifested in physical properties. The architectonic aspect is also refl ected in the other series of works of labyrinthine passages and structures. They may be seen to mirror a psychological state, an exploration of options, of someone trying to pave his path within a convoluted environment. It brings to mind the term “rhizome” of multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points, and a search for different ways that are constantly emerging. It could be seen as a maze with more complex choices among alternative routes.

The suspended leaves encapsulated in cubicles evoke the co-existence of memory and amnesia. The contrasting furtive essence of re-membering what nature has driven away or dismantled. The large leaves act as a marker, meaning and transience of human existence. They symbolise change, they are also an icon for strong lasting friendship which persists through the different stages of life. This sentiment is shared by the tree-like installation, which acts as stalls or compartments that preserve texts and writings by a deceased who used to pen his feelings and existential ordeals. It is a plinth for self-disclosure, persevered and highlighted in organic-like arrangements.

The fi gurative expression of the tumbleweed, absence and its counterparts hone our way to realise that through art one comes across a creative cast of reality, substantiating abstract anomalies into innovative tangible and visual images.

A detailed catalog can be accessed online via the

QR code.

A1B1C1D1

If not….Absence

Art fl ows over time, oscillating across scales of ideas on what we are and what we want to be. Art is a creative struggle to be, to know, and to understand. It is a process of abstraction that reveals various forms of realities or expressions. An open-ended process of consciousness coming to know itself, and a creative practice that unfolds through physical and intellectual acts, to be folded again in visual elements that can be seen, heard, or felt through material entities. Through art one gravitates into a domain where one encounters the inner most layers of the manifold of existence.

This collective exhibition by four emerging artists can be seen to fulfi l these facets. It refl ects the search of the artist to reveal, consciously or unconsciously, the existential conundrums of life, and an attempt to come to terms with its constructs. It is a yearning to overcome diffi culties, an effort to answer or accept inexplicable mysteries. Mysteries can only be envisioned through simple metaphors. This is why this show is entitled tumbleweed. For like tumbleweeds, art can be a metaphor that in its fi gural simplicity speaks attributes which reveal profound aspects. In popular readings of texts, tumbleweeds are a cliché representing inactivity or desolate situations; a resultant silence which succumbs to helplessness or passivity.

In nature, however, tumbleweeds have a different meaning and function, for they are diaspores made of dead tissues of plants or spores which emerge out of arid contexts, detaching themselves from their roots to fi nd a new context where they can prompt new possibilities of being. Tumbleweeds represent a progression that professes itself through being. They are structures that fall between boundaries, between the duality of life and death, being and non-being, moulded and driven by the elements of nature, carried away to new territories and ecologies.

They recall potentiality, movement, and action – the cycle of conclusions and new beginnings – the unfolding of new progenies. These are some interesting attributes that these artists and their art represent in this exhibition - a progression akin to the telos of tumbleweeds. In their very own particular way, they refl ect a process of detachment from their previous conditions, moving forward to new terrains. In their own individual ways these artists are all in a state of fl ux, exploring their existential state of being, articulated through their aesthetic concerns, and replicated it in artistic forms.

Intertwined with the concept of tumbleweed one may fi nd another maybe more abstract idea, namely, absence. Absence is a strong sentiment cutting across the expression and thoughts of these artists. It’s a strong underlying notion which surfaces when one refl ects on different personal levels of messages of these artworks. It is an absence which calls for answers or memories of what was or is absent; it is an absence which does not refer to a fi xed destructive notion or a missing object. Nor does it refer to negative connotations akin to nihilism, for it is an absence propagating a pregnant void, a state of mind which comes to understand the borders of what ‘is’ and what ‘might be’. It is a method of coming to know what is left and what remains. What was and what can come to be out of what is not present. It is a means that proffers a creative attempt to act upon our limitations - a visual succour for the travails, faults, troubles and diffi culties presented by life itself. Thus, absence reverberates also a sense of presence, a state of being, where one fully comprehends one’s own restrictions.

The drawings of edifi ces presented in this exhibition reveal an interest for the reality of structure, a concern to construct substantial monuments or edifi ces, revealing a desire

to actualise buildings which are still waiting to be manifested in physical properties. The architectonic aspect is also refl ected in the other series of works of labyrinthine passages and structures. They may be seen to mirror a psychological state, an exploration of options, of someone trying to pave his path within a convoluted environment. It brings to mind the term “rhizome” of multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points, and a search for different ways that are constantly emerging. It could be seen as a maze with more complex choices among alternative routes.

The suspended leaves encapsulated in cubicles evoke the co-existence of memory and amnesia. The contrasting furtive essence of re-membering what nature has driven away or dismantled. The large leaves act as a marker, meaning and transience of human existence. They symbolise change, they are also an icon for strong lasting friendship which persists through the different stages of life. This sentiment is shared by the tree-like installation, which acts as stalls or compartments that preserve texts and writings by a deceased who used to pen his feelings and existential ordeals. It is a plinth for self-disclosure, persevered and highlighted in organic-like arrangements.

The fi gurative expression of the tumbleweed, absence and its counterparts hone our way to realise that through art one comes across a creative cast of reality, substantiating abstract anomalies into innovative tangible and visual images.

A detailed catalog can be accessed online via the

QR code.MALTA SOCIETY OF ARTS15 12 2015 - 15 01 2016

PAMELABALDACCHINOMARK LUGHERMOROBERT ZAHRA ANDREAZERAFA

Joe Phillip Abela

The drawings of edifi ces presented in this exhibition reveal an interest for the reality of structure, a concern to construct substantial monuments or edifi ces, revealing a desire to actualise buildings which are still waiting to be manifested in physical properties. The architectonic aspect is also refl ected in the other series of works of labyrinthine passages and structures. They may be seen to mirror a psychological state, an exploration of options, of someone trying to pave his path within a convoluted environment. It brings to mind the term “rhizome” of multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points, and a search for different ways that are constantly emerging. It could be seen as a maze with more complex choices among alternative routes.

The suspended leaves encapsulated in cubicles evoke the co-existence of memory and amnesia. The contrasting furtive essence of re-membering what nature has driven away or dismantled. The large leaves act as a marker, meaning and transience of human existence. They symbolise change, they are also an icon for strong lasting friendship which persists through the different stages of life. This sentiment is shared by the tree-like installation, which acts as stalls or

MALTA SOCIETY OF ARTS15 12 2015 - 15 01 2016

PAMELABALDACCHINOMARK LUGHERMOROBERT ZAHRA ANDREAZERAFA

Joe Phillip Abela

The drawings of edifi ces presented in this exhibition reveal an interest for the reality of structure, a concern to construct substantial monuments or edifi ces, revealing a desire to actualise buildings which are still waiting to be manifested in physical properties. The architectonic aspect is also refl ected in the other series of works of labyrinthine passages and structures. They may be seen to mirror a psychological state, an exploration of options, of someone trying to pave his path within a convoluted environment. It brings to mind the term “rhizome” of multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points, and a search for different ways that are constantly emerging. It could be seen as a maze with more complex choices among alternative routes.

The suspended leaves encapsulated in cubicles evoke the co-existence of memory and amnesia. The contrasting furtive essence of re-membering what nature has driven away or dismantled. The large leaves act as a marker, meaning and transience of human existence. They symbolise change, they are also an icon for strong lasting friendship which persists through the different stages of life. This sentiment is shared by the tree-like installation, which acts as stalls or