Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1213458
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 4 THIS WEEK THEATRE Malta-born, UK-based artist Roxman Gatt speaks to TEODOR RELJIC about her upcoming musical performance show My Womxn is a God My God is a Womxn, whose title implies the multifarious ways in which the female figure can be celebrated in a world that has historically and persistently been hostile to it Weaponising sexist stereotypes against themselves How would you describe your evolution as an artist, and what would you say were some of the most consistent thematic or conceptual concerns and preoccupations of yours, that you've held on to since you first began making art until now? I left home around 11 years ago to study in London, where I am based, and unlike the UK did with the EU, I 'remained'. It is a blurred journey of many life experiences that have shaped me as the artist I am today, with all the good, bad, and in-between implied within. I feel very lucky to be sur- rounded by beautiful talented creatures who have refused to follow and live within the con- straints of societal norms, who have created their own (queer as fuck) alternative worlds where love thrives and differences are celebrated and welcomed. Being born in a very conserv- ative and Catholic country has impacted me and my work a lot. Religion used to be a major theme in the work, and as a mat- ter of fact still is... it's unavoida- ble, really. However, I don't ever come to it separately, it comes as part of a bigger research area. I am intrigued and fascinated by many things around me, howev- er I do have subject areas that I am constantly referencing and will always feature heavily in my work, some of which are: gender, identity, sexuality, love, loneli- ness, car crashes, consumption, production, the fetishisation of inanimate objects and macho culture. Could you tell us a little bit about My Womxn is a God My God is a Womxn, your contribu- tion to the Art+Feminism series of events at Spazju Kreattiv? Boiling it down, I would say it's mainly a 'fuck you' to the patri- archy, while also aiming to be a celebration of womxn in all their variety. I was reading a lot about witches and mothers around the same time I was first conceiving of the project, and also wrote this song with the title 'Hag'. I eventually started looking into derogatory terms used for wom- xn. My intention was to reclaim these words and celebrate their meanings through movement, sound, video painting and sculp- tural works. How does it feel to be forming part of Art+Feminism? Would you say a particular emphasis on feminism is necessary for the Maltese cultural context? Teodor Reljic "Being born in a very conservative and Catholic country has impacted me and my work a lot" Roxman Gatt will be performing My Womxn is a God my God is a Womxn at MUZA, Valletta 'Warrior Heart Geart' by Roxman Gatt (2019)