Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546170
10 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 14 AUGUST 2026 CULTURE Vessel to Vassal: Pete Codling of figures, animals and memories British artist Pete Codling presents Vessel to Vassal, an exhibition of drawings, prints and sculpture exploring voyage, containment and personal change BRITISH artist Pete Codling presents Vessel to Vassal, an ex- hibition of drawings, prints and sculpture exploring voyage, con- tainment and personal change. Developed through his contin- uing relationship with Malta and Gozo, the exhibition brings new work into dialogue with recur- ring bottle imagery, selected ear- lier pieces and the artist's 2010 Ark series. The exhibition follows Cod- ling's physical and emotional movement between Portsmouth, Malta and Gozo during several years of considerable personal and creative change. "My bottles have never sim- ply contained messages. They contain people, animals, angels, memories and emotions. They can preserve and protect, but they can also isolate and impris- on. This exhibition reflects a period in which I have travelled repeatedly between Portsmouth and Gozo, carrying one place in- to another. Like any traveller, ex- plorer or artist, I sometimes feel that I am steering my own course, while at other times I am carried by circumstance, by other people, by physical and emotional weath- er, and by the unpredictable cur- rents of fate," Codling said. At its centre is the bottle as a vessel for people, animals, an- gels, objects and emotions. These transparent containers may offer protection and passage, but also suggest isolation, confinement and the psychological experience of being visible without being reached. The title Vessel to Vassal de- scribes this unstable relationship. The vessel carries its contents, while the person or creature in- side becomes subject to its pro- tection, direction and limits. At the same time, the vessel may become servant to its cargo, bur- dened and defined by what it must preserve. The exhibition also considers the wider experience of travel and exploration. We may believe we are steering our own course, yet every journey is affected by weather, circumstance, personal relationships and fate. The trav- eller may begin with agency and adventure, but can gradually be- come subject to the sea, the ves- sel, the cargo and the destination itself. Key new work A substantial new charcoal drawing will respond to Sansuna, Grace Halos & Phone Glows series no2. After Delacroix - Christ on the Sea of Galilee oil Halos & Phone Glows series no3. After Delacroix - Christ on the Sea of Galilee oil paintings- Pete Codling -95cm x 95cm