Ir-Ragel

As said in the previous post, currently I got nowhere to work...During the last month I had been busy clearing out the studio and helping out in the project held in the house in which I had practiced as an artist for the last months.

I was on easy mode during this month, enjoying the Maltese summer to the full with loads of beer, chilling on sandy beaches at night sipping wine, loads of swimming, reggae parties, so on and so forth.

During the second weekend of July (13-14) a he project , entitled Ir-Ragel (translates to The Man in my language, Maltese) was open to the public.  It consisted of a collaboration between author Glen Calleja and visual artist Robert Zahra.  The two collaborated together on the idea of man and the various roles and situations the man could be seen in.  The writing, all in Maltese, depicted the man in different perspectives, raging from of a breadwinner to a rapist.  The combination of media and form used to create the writing conveyed Calleja's idea of the man as someone which is all the time adjusting his position, while living up to his expectations and position that he has to hold in a particular environment.  For example, the idea of the man as a pillar was given by the text written in pencil, small words in different handwriting written over and over again to form a huge rectangle.  A bold black motto outlining the main theme behind the background text was written on top of the words, at the top of the text pillar.

The contradictions found within a man were also seen in Zahra's site-specific designs, where rough, sketchy images in charcoal and pencil were balanced out with floral-motif stencils.  Plastic doilies were used as stencils, doilies that were used by the artist's grandmother to whom the house belonged to.  

The room which served as my studio was turned into an installation, incorporating audio and audience participation.  Various layers were written on paper, and pasted on top of each other in a way that once the top layer is ripped, it reveals another layers.  The text consisted of sweeping statements, all starting with the work "Huwa", which translates to "He is".  Here's a short clip from the installation, along with a forgotten clip from my camera.