Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1419860
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 OCTOBER 2021 5 ART 'OUT of Now – Beauty Reima- gined' is an exhibition by Alex Attard, being held at il-Kamra ta' Fuq, in Mqabba, under the curation of Melanie Erixon from Art Sweven. The exhibitions is featuring photographic works of With- ering flowers, wilted, wrin- kled and rapidly fading from existence. 'Out Of Now' is a metaphor on permanence and impermanence. It represents creation/extinction, earthly/ divine, reflection/termination. The artist interrupts the 'Now', reinterprets the future and re- configures impermanence. Having dazzled with their beauty at their peak, 'Out of Now' may be viewed as a rever- sal of the flower's role wherein the flower becomes the polli- nator instead of the pollinated, impregnating the photogra- pher's psyche with their cur- rent aesthetic. Consequently, these expiring blooms drifting at the edge of uncertainty are reimagined and cast onto another dimension for future retrospection. The concept and works were born during the covid lock- down. One can feel an anal- ogy between the times of un- certainty and the 'end' of our social lives with the death of these flowers, where we were all constrained to live in an OUT OF NOW moment. Through the injection of bright colours, the artist en- visions a new future normal, symbolizing an emerging spirit of hope, renewal and new be- ginnings. Alex Attard has had various solo exhibitions one of which, 'Parallel Existences', has been published in book form (Kite Group) and awarded the 'Best Book Production' by the Malta National Book Prize. His work has been featured in several high-end shows and projects, including participa- tion in the 2016 Venice Archi- tecture Biennale with archi- tects AP Valletta, with whom he also collaborated on a group exhibition titled 'Reasonable Dreams' in Paris, the Ostrale 2019 Contemporary Art Bien- nale in Germany, and the 2015 Mdina Contemporary Art Bi- ennale. His work has been published in various international art and design magazines, and trend-settings platforms. 'Out of Now – Beauty Reim- agined' will run from the 14th October till the 14th Novem- ber 2021. Open daily from 6am till noon. More evening opening hours per week will be announced on the Face- book page: 'il-Kamra ta' Fuq'. Works from artist Alex Attard on display at il-Kamra ta' Fuq THE Gabriel Caruana Founda- tion's second call for its Artistic Programme has bore fruit with the first exhibition featuring Jamie Barbara and Samuel Cian- tar. These emerging duo will be showing their site specific works at The Mill as part of SPRING v2.1. The exhibition, in transi- tion, curated by Elyse Tonna is showing works that are in- timately linked to The Mill, all the work being developed over the past months. Employing past narratives of The Mill as a point of departure, Samuel Ci- antar and Jamie Barbara reima- gine the spaces within through site-specific works. Samuel and Jamie embarked on an explora- tion extracting aspects related to both The Mill's original use as a wind-powered structure and also a studio space of mod- ern artist Gabriel Caruana. Individually and collectively the artists translate quasi-in- tangible facets related to The Mill overlapping them with contemporary realities through sound, video and installation work. Their unique approaches combine elements of the seen and unseen, using The Mill as a case study to raise aware- ness on more global issues. By zooming in on in situ micro residues such as polluted dust deposited on window sills and paint splatters on floors, they bridge aspects related to air and sound pollution, the densi- fication of our urban environ- ments and the lack of similar artist-run spaces.. The GCF volunteers will en- sure implementation of health and safety protocols (registra- tion at the door for contact tracing purposes, mask on, sanitizer, temperature taken at the door and 2m distance, if maximum capacity is reached, visitors will be kindly asked to wait outside). SPRING v2.1 launches Wednesday 13th October at 5pm and will run until Fri- day 29th October, at The Mill - Art, Culture and Crafts Cen- tre, Birkirkara. We have one open day on Saturday 16th October from 4pm till 8pm. The Mill is also open Wednes- days, Thursdays between 5pm and 7.30pm and Fridays be- tween 5pm and 8pm. The Gabriel Caruana Foundation reveals latest exhibition Detail of 'Waveforms', sound, prints on translucent paper, 2021, by Jamie Barbara Detail of 'Tracc'aria', fabric, petroleum jelly, pollutants, 2021, by Samuel Ciantar