Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/191652
28 THIS WEEK THIS WEEK The Young Turks of Malta's fine art scene MaltaToday has been featuring profiles of the students from the MCAST Art and Design Higher National Diploma and Bachelor's programmes. In this, the seventh week, we interview Matyou Galea The influence of MCAST At MCAST I have come into contact with many different people who have consciously or sub consciously shaped the way I look at things, the way I approach subject matter and the materials and processes I use. I have learnt through experience that you can learn something from anyone and sometimes, the most important lessons come from surprising sources. At a place like the Institute of Art and Design, one comes across a variety of stimuli on a daily basis; both planned ones (assignments and so on) and the more casual unplanned or just plain odd ones. During my time at the Institute, I have learnt to take advantage of this and use these stimuli to fuel my work. Your art's main defining factor I believe that the way I approach things could be considered a main defining factor of my work. I work in a variety of media employed in different techniques and processes. I do not like to be restricted or defined by the medium or the tools I use, even though process is very important to me and I love tools. My work typically has no real subject matter as I seldom aim to represent but rather create something new, something that didn't really exist before. The next step in your artistic development There are many ideas which I would like to investigate. I believe that in time – sooner than later – I would have to join forces with other individuals, as I believe that my current work has taken directions which go beyond the realms of Fine Art and into areas I have limited knowledge in. CULTURE | TV | FILM CINEMA LISTINGS FOOD | WHAT'S ON 'Direct and ri illustrating S Though it's already set to be the publishing sensation of the year, Guze Stagno's latest novel 'What Happens in Brussels Stays in Brussels' is also made special for being accompanied by illustrations by Jimmy Grima – who gives us the lowdown on the process TEODOR RELJIC Matyou Galea APPARENTLY, the one thing that coursed through Jimmy Grima's mind as he went about illustrating Guze Stagno's latest novel was "sex, sex, sex". "Big lips, big eyes, protruding plants in the corner, big boobs, erect penises underneath trousers, pointy furniture, pointy architecture, delicate lines… butterflies, cats and hair." Though this may sound facetious at the face of it, Grima argues that in fact, this aesthetic choice is perfectly in line with the narrative and thematic drive of Stagno's 'What Happens in Brussels Stays in Brussels', which throws a young Maltese journalist, Gustav Azzopardi, into the Brussels rigmarole after he's sent to interview a prominent Labourleaning MEP. "Since the novel ends up with a very long sex scene I tried to have elements of sexual innuendo in nearly all the illustrations. Some of them are direct and very evident, while others are subtle and more intellectual." This was also a way for Grima to depict immediate, visceral moments or, in his words, "moments that usually pass by in a split second, but which in fact create key reference points in one's memory bank". "It is not very often that I draw people and faces and this was a great opportunity to play with the human body and its interaction with spaces and situations," Grima said. Grima, who apart from being an illustrator is also the co-founder of the performance troupe the rubberbodies collective, said that his formally simple illustrations were done pretty much on the fly, as he "doesn't like to do preliminary drawings". "I believe that my relationship with the paper and my pen has to be direct and risky. I start with a blank paper and just like a sculpture I engrave the lines. It is a one-time process. If I don't like the end result I scrap the drawing and start from scratch." Jimmy Grima's illustrations accompany Guze Stagno's What Happens in Brussels Stays in Brussels