Is the naked in art necessarily nude? Can such a fine line be drawn so easily? At a time when pornography is so easily accessible that even Rocco Siffredi complains about web portals dishing his wares out for free, does a state of undress still retain the relevance and mystical forbidden aura of days of yore? These, and other such questions will certainly be amongst the many uttered and not between the 3rd and 31st July when a collective by Maltese and International artists will be on show at the recently renovated No. 68, St. Lucy Street, Valletta.
The fourth exhibition since 68’s inception as a gallery space, ‘The Life Model - Between Naked and Nude’, forms part of this year’s edition of the Malta Arts Festival and certainly aims to provoke its audience into questioning boundaries with its abundant selection of unclad figures.
The artists, selected for this show by curator Patrick Fenech are seven, and their media range from painting to photography, film installation and etching. Lithuanian artist Zygimantas Augustinas who in 2002 won second prize in the BP portrait award competition is presenting a set of Surrealist etchings where the human figure, at times persecuted by damned spirits, is presented raw and unembellished in order to explore existential issues and reinterpret religious iconography unequivocally and to full effect. Jeni Caruana taking further steps into the past, refers to symbols of fertility and Maltese heritage in her subtle use of spirals in the background of her paintings, yet notwithstanding, the nude figure remains mostly undeterred in her work. In the same way Patrick Dalli and Anthony Calleja, present the nude as a human still life; without pretense or frivolity, an exercise in form and proportion, idiosyncratic to each one's style. Whilst Dalli delves further into the mastery of realism which he has now become so intimately associated with, Calleja brings forth a zest for colour which surrounds his nudes and animates them with an almost ethereal vivification.
Astrid Steinbrecher and Alexandra Pace, both approach the nude through the medium of photography however the end result, as can be expected, is very different. Whilst Steinbrecher’s ‘Pearl in Shell’ somehow aims to distract its viewer from its subject through a clever overlay of the same image, Pace heads in the opposite direction with a colourful, debauched group of naked boys set on having a good time. The work, titled ‘Time to Kiss the World Good Bye’, leaves very little to the imagination, except for the identity of its subjects.
Vince Briffa’s reworked film installation ‘Between a Kiss and the Naked Truth’, very much in line with the Hollywood romances of the black and white era, uses the kiss as a running metaphor for the act of seduction. It places the audience’s imagination as a continuation device and perceiver of an activity that only happens in the viewer’s psyche but never in the work itself; a strategy intended to trigger the audience’s imagination to fabricate a perceived reality.
‘The Life Model - Between Naked and Nude’ aims to set the thoughts of its audience off into the realms of nudity and the bareness of the naked body and above all else, following thorough viewing, to demolish any misconception which might have existed before entry.
‘The Life Model - Between Naked and Nude’ is open from the 3rd to the 31st July at No. 68, St. Lucy Street, Valletta.
More info on www.maltaartsfestival.com and www.68stlucystreet.com
