Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/392875
26 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2014 THIS WEEK CULTURE | TV | FILM CINEMA LISTINGS FOOD | WHAT'S ON THIS WEEK We speak to artist Darren Tanti about his participation in 'Selfie' – an exhibition of self- portraits by a healthy number of contemporary Maltese artists at Studio 104, Valletta Art is serious business How would you describe the 'brief' of this particular exhibition, and how did you go about interpreting it? The 'brief ' was quite simple – ba- sically an invitation for artists to exhibit self-portraits with a view to commenting on the pervasive cul- ture of 'selfies' – what was particu- larly interesting of this exhibition was that none of the artists knew who the other participants were go- ing to be. In my case I wanted to avoid the traditional concept of the self-por- trait or the contemporary mobile phone camera selfie (perhaps with a messy bathroom as a background) that we are constantly exposed to ad nauseum in social media. Indeed the 'selfie' says a lot about an indi- vidual; it speaks about his/her aes- thetics and the way he/she wants to present himself/herself to the 'pub- lic', it keeps a record of the places that one has been to and the people one frequents; it can be a cry for at- tention, a means to expose oneself or else an occassion to create a ficti- tious person. I opted to portray my- self by 'censoring' my physical face and use other cues to speak about myself (that can be totally different from what others think about me). Apart from painting a contempo- rary piece I wanted to make refer- ence to the long history of self-por- traiture that has been around for quite a long time; the 'selfie' is not a recent phenomenon at all, many art- ists painted high-resolution 'selfies' long before the advent of the cam- era. At the same time I also wished to tackle the philosophical issues of simulation and simulacrum, which are particularly relevant to the on- going fragmentation of reality into hyper-reality and digital space. What kind of work will you be exhibiting as part of the show? I will be presenting an oil paint- ing. Instead of going for full life-size dimensions, as I usually do, this time I opted for a smaller canvas, a 70cmx50cm painting. Smaller paintings tend to draw people in and this is what I wish to achieve; I wish the audience to get closer to the canvas and to get a 'closer' look at me. They won't be seeing my face but they will encounter another face from a different epoch that has a lot to say. I urge the audience to look closely at that face, to analyse the obvious, to discover the title of the painting and to read about the indi- vidual represented in it. What do you make of Studio 104 as a space, and what does it offer that other – perhaps more prominent – galleries do? If I have to describe Studio 104 in two words I would say that is an in- timate space. I think that the gallery lends itself perfectly to contempo- rary art that seeks proximity to the visitor. It is not a large hall in which a viewer might get distracted by loads of visuals happening at once; on the contrary it is a place that leads to focus. What is also par- ticular to the place is the beautiful print press at the end of the gallery; apart from being a well-maintained piece of machinery, it is also fully functional. The management is very welcoming and are open to dialogue with artists and visitors. How has your style developed over the years, and what have been some of the most important things you've learnt? For an artist it is essential to keep research and development as their main goals in his or her artistic car- rier. I believe that artists cannot afford to feel too comfortable with their results because it will lead to laziness and sterility. Art is serious business, and needs to be regarded as so, especially by the ones who practice it. We have departed from the Hollywood depiction of the ec- centric/emotional/a bit crazy artist, and we are looking at the artist as a relevant individual that has talent to offer across the whole spectrum of society. These are some impor- tant things I have learnt during the years. A development that can be im- mediately highlighted in my art is the introduction of the digital. This development can be divided in two different aspects, there is the thematic aspect and the technical aspect, both of which have to syn- chronise perfectly together. What, in your opinion, are some of the most pressing concerns of the visual arts scene in Malta, especially now in the run-up to V18? There is a lot to say in this re- gard. Everyone knows that positive things have been implemented, and remain to be implemented. But I am positive that the art community, to- gether with the general public and the authorities involved are willing to boost the visual arts scene in our islands... maybe all we really need is to raise more curiosity in our public and to look for more input from the private sector in the arts scene. I would like to highlight one spe- cific area of development that we re- ally need to address – art spaces for artists – art colonies! This summer I was extremely fortunate to be a resident artist at the Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts (VCCA) in the US, thanks to Agenzija Zghazagh and St James Cavalier (Divergent Thinkers II). In there I was given two great gifts – time and space. Art residencies are places in which artists are given studios in which to work and time to think, reflect and create. Creativity demands a lot of effort and concentration – forget the Eureka moments that material- ise from nothingness – behind every Eureka there are innumerable hours of work and hardship. Everyone who is in touch with the Maltese art scene is aware that many artists have to struggle for their studio space. Many times the lack of space results into unwanted alterations to the art- works, in others ideas remain ideas (because there is no space for them to materialise in) and others result in frustration and demotivation. In the US artists fight the same problems, every inch of space costs thousands of dollars (especially in the large cities) but they have the opportunity to ap- ply for vacant studios for an amount of time and spend it developing their projects. The greatest thing of all is that artists get to meet other artists, share ideas, discuss, create projects together and attract new talents into their respective communities. In my humble opinion, I think that invest- ing in our local talents, giving them space in which to develop, exhibit and generate wealth, and attracting foreign talents to work and collabo- rate with – exporting and import- ing knowledge, ideas and market – is something that we really need to take into serious consideration. Selfie will be open until October 25. Opening hours at Studio 104 are 11:00 to 17:00 from Tuesday to Friday and 11:00 to 14:00 on Sat- urday Self-portrait by Darren Tanti Detail from Tanti's contribution to the 'Selfie' exhibition Creativity demands a lot of effort and concentration – forget the Eureka moments that materialise from nothingness