Christopher Saliba’s forthcoming exhibition is unusual though visually striking. Recently, the artist has taken a keen interest in setting up installations at unspoilt and undeveloped natural sites around the island. Sometimes, he even explored remote, steep and almost inaccessible places to make his works appear more dramatic.
The objects used were raw materials like wood and rocks as well as selected ready-made commercial artefacts. The result of these interventions are simple and geometrical arrangements inspired by classical ideals.
Mr.Saliba’s aim was to create an atmosphere that evokes spiritual and sublime thoughts as well as an intimate feeling of belonging with nature. Since most of these works, which the artist himself calls happenings, are usually impermanent and ephemeral, he documented them through photography.
He says that the environment became the real protagonist of his art. “Nature is no longer represented, like in painting, but presented directly to the beholder, though with a different eye and an unusual and unfamiliar way of looking at things.”
His prime sources of inspiration are the unique and evocative marvels of Gozo that evoke what he describes as the power of nature. Other sources of inspiration are great masters like the surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico and cinema directors like Federico Fellini, Stanely Kubric and Peter Greenway.
Thrrough his works, Saliba tries to raise awareness about the beauty of God's creation and man's relationship with nature. He says his intention is not to transform the environment, but to make it more intimate, by manifesting its essentiality. "Through the simplicity, the spatial clarity, the graceful harmony of forms and the essential, structural configurations that come into existence, I tried to enhance the idea of the primordial and the divine qualities of nature.”
The result of this photographic work is a series of powerful images in which nature and art become one.
Mr. Saliba is an established artist who spent four years at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Perugia. From then onwards he exhibited his works several times in Italy, Malta and England. He is also a teacher of art at the School of Arts in Ghajnsielem.
This exhibition, sponsored by Bank of Valletta, is being held at the Banca Giuratale, Independence Square, Victoria, between October 2 and 14
Steve Mallia, The Times of Malta, September 13, 2004
The objects used were raw materials like wood and rocks as well as selected ready-made commercial artefacts. The result of these interventions are simple and geometrical arrangements inspired by classical ideals.
Mr.Saliba’s aim was to create an atmosphere that evokes spiritual and sublime thoughts as well as an intimate feeling of belonging with nature. Since most of these works, which the artist himself calls happenings, are usually impermanent and ephemeral, he documented them through photography.
He says that the environment became the real protagonist of his art. “Nature is no longer represented, like in painting, but presented directly to the beholder, though with a different eye and an unusual and unfamiliar way of looking at things.”
His prime sources of inspiration are the unique and evocative marvels of Gozo that evoke what he describes as the power of nature. Other sources of inspiration are great masters like the surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico and cinema directors like Federico Fellini, Stanely Kubric and Peter Greenway.
Thrrough his works, Saliba tries to raise awareness about the beauty of God's creation and man's relationship with nature. He says his intention is not to transform the environment, but to make it more intimate, by manifesting its essentiality. "Through the simplicity, the spatial clarity, the graceful harmony of forms and the essential, structural configurations that come into existence, I tried to enhance the idea of the primordial and the divine qualities of nature.”
The result of this photographic work is a series of powerful images in which nature and art become one.
Mr. Saliba is an established artist who spent four years at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Perugia. From then onwards he exhibited his works several times in Italy, Malta and England. He is also a teacher of art at the School of Arts in Ghajnsielem.
This exhibition, sponsored by Bank of Valletta, is being held at the Banca Giuratale, Independence Square, Victoria, between October 2 and 14
Steve Mallia, The Times of Malta, September 13, 2004
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