Ħamsin

What’s Ħamsin?
The title directly refers the artit’s next birthday. The exhibition itself is a (seven-day) birthday party to celebrate the artist’s fiftieth birthday. Over the past year she has worked on producing a painting to represent each year from 1974 to 2024.

The Process
In preparation for the actual paintings, the artist spent over a year researching her past through photographs, video and sound recordings, books, copybooks, newspapers, letters, diaries, boxes of clothes, toys and other memorabilia. She also met with relatives and friends and visited places that she used to frequent when she was younger.
The work feels like a natural a continuation to ‘The Ghosts Within’, work that dealt with the possibility of crating protals to specific personal memories. The work was exhibited at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta in 2019. The work consisted of seventy photographs printed on what looked like shards of glass that created a space where visitors could literally walk into and through the artist’s memories.

The Work
All the work was done on two canvas sizes; either square 100cm, or on 120cm x 80cm. Most of the work is abstract or semi abstract and the materials used are very varied. Styles vary drastically and are indicative that a single person is able to produce such a wide spectrum in their output bacuse human beings are indeed creatures of multitude. The work covers fifty years. People change. Styles too. We are often put in pigeonholes; she is a headteacher, she is a musician, she is a journalist, a mother, a daughter, a wife, and that’s it. But we cannot be narrowed down to fit in boxes. Our lives are much more complex than that. We have multiple stories, different sides of our character. One day you’re feeling a certain way, then something happens and you grow and change. We must allow ourselves felxibility. And the collection clearly portrays that. Empathy is central. It requrires listening but also requires moments of silence dedicated to looking, where visitors can resonate with the work.
The work is a collection of memories and stories. But then again, stories change according to the storyteller. And this is why the role of the visitors and their intepretation of the work is important. According to the artist, it highlights the fact that we are on our own in so many different ways and that art can connect us to people we might have avoided, until we realise that there is much more in common than we might have thought. Art can help erase any imaginery barriers that we keep erecting. In a society where everyone tries to portray how special they are, we have lost our empathy and our sense of union. Thinking of human beings as numbers is very dangerous, but that is how we are constantly being portayed on the news; so many hundreds died, so many thousands lost their homes, so many people were killed; and this abstraction of human life creates numbness. But what if we knew the stories behind the people involved, their names, their ages, their dreams? Through stories and narrations, be them spoken or visually represented, we feel each other and emphatise. This project is an individual’s perception of personal experiences that is being offered to be shared by others in a symbolic act of personal connection.

The Circus
The show, therefore, sheds light on one person’s life. It is imbued with memories, disappointments and achievements, dreams, setbacks, failures, hopes, pain and happiness. All that a person goes though in life. It shows how unique and precious life is. Everyone’s life. Not just that of the artist. And life, if lived authentically, can be something amazing.
Life, on the other hand, can be a circus, where instead of living, you choose to exclusively perform. Audiences, pressures and challenges will always be part of life. It is up to us to face them with a fake smile over grinding teeth, or with courage, hope and the humbleness of admitting being tired or needing more time or help. Life can be a circus. Only if you choose it to be.

The Exhibition Space
The show will take place in an early 17th century Palazzo in Qrendi that is currently undergoing renovation. It is situated in the village core, just round the corner from the parish church, with ample parking spaces in the vicinity. All steps have been taken to ensure the safety of the visitors; however, caution is still recommended when visiting the space.

Black
Those who visit the exhibtion are kindly requested to wear black, which is the theme colour of the event.