Ex Voto: The Concept

With a week to go for my first solo exhibition, things are getting quite hectic. However, these last few days I have been constantly writing about the project, and how the whole project turned out to be a discovery of inner solitude and factors of religious islanders. Most of my past projects have been about memories and location, but with Ex Voto I have taken the subject to a new level.

This project revolves around Christian iconography, the conditions of living on an island and the relation to the sea. Maltese seascapes are depicted in contrast with urban Berlin landscapes to create platforms on which solemnly silent figures exist.  These figures echo the feeling of solitude and helplessness found in most of the maritime Ex-Voto pieces; whether alone or in a group, the characters seen in these paintings are always alone, relying on their own skills and supernatural phenomena, hoping to land themselves in a better situation. This desire for a better state was taken to a different level when interpreted in the contest of the islander's utopia of the continental city as a destination to escape to in order to be fulfilled.

The works explore the ambiguous relation between the sea and the individuals who feel threatened by the physical isolation that it creates, but also feel that the sea gives them an identity, at par with their Catholic upbringing.  This body of works bears testimony to contemporary salvation, liberation, and an introspective journey which often leads to solitude.  

 Ex Voto opens on the 12^th September at Maritime Museum, Birgu, at 8.00pm and runs until the 26th September 2014.

Ex Voto is a project supported by the Malta Arts Fund

One can click here for updates and details about the Ex Voto project, and below are some teasers from the final sketches that eventually ended up on canvas.