Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1264355
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JUNE 2020 5 THIS WEEK ART longings yearning to instinctive long- ings. Has the covid-19 pandemic affected your work in any way at all? What kind of short- and long-term impact do you think it will have on your work in particular, and on visual arts in Malta in general? This particular period has been an opportunity for re- flection, for refinement of the creative and technical aspects of my art. I was always a pro- lific artist, fuelled with a burn- ing urgency to finish my work. The space that this social shut- down has given me is valuable, as I have had the opportunity to reflect on my paintings, in their totality. During the last months, I have launched a se- ries entitled "Lands", which glorifies the fecundity and the physical fluid reality of the fem- inine body. I have also started a creative project, which is still in its very initial phases, which will lead to an exhibition in Piacenza in Italy. This project started in the space of darkness, in a liminal space where transformation occurs, and where the work moves from the familiar to the unknown. What do you hope that the visual arts scene can learn once and if the pandemic well and truly subsides? Every crisis is a challenge and an opportunity for growth. We should take the time to analyse the situation and to strengthen ourselves and our work. On a personal level, I also reflected on the current situation. I took the time to do up my studio, seeing this as a new chapter. It is a space to work alone, in soli- tude, and eventually one would be eager to engage in collabora- tion and dialogue. Every crisis is a platform for positive things for an artist eager and curious to search and study. What's next for you? In the short term, I will con- tinue working on this new se- ries which will be exhibited in Italy. I am already very inter- ested in exploring new medi- ums such as sculpture, which has always fascinated me. I also intend to continue my studies, both of the aesthetic form and within the intellectual domain. Finally, I wish to continue searching for new opportuni- ties, locally and abroad, so as to pitch my work towards a wider audience. The Beach will be exhibited at The Splendid, Strait Street, Val- letta from July 18 to 25 "The space that this social shutdown has given me is valuable, as I have had the opportunity to reflect on my paintings, in their totality" 'Woman and Man' from the Primordial series 'The Arrival' from the Beach series