My art takes another dimension as my interest shifts towards another form of expression: Land Art. I start using raw materials, earth, sand, rocks, pebbles, charcoal, as well as selected ready-made commercial artefacts and assemble them in a natural environment. Since most of these works, which I call happenings, are usually impermanent, I document them by making use of photography. Though it may imply indirect affinities with other trends of art such as Post-Minimalism and Conceptual Art, the nature of this new modality of work is rather symbolic. What result from my actions are simple and geometrical arrangements, inspired by classical ideals.
Unlike Minimalists, however, I am more concerned about the expressive, emotive, symbolic, spiritual and contemplative qualities of my art. I feel that in this present era, man is too much concerned with conquering and manipulating the Earth and using its resources for his own benefits and to better his situation. He lost himself in creating a secular security and an economic security in order to replace the spiritual one he has lost. The questions on our existence, on our origins and on our primordial links with nature have been pushed aside and repressed altogether. Through my work I try to raise an awareness about man’s relationship with nature and the spiritual feelings these might awaken.
I often venture around the island of Gozo, to places such as seashores facing the open sea and up to remote and steep cliffs in order to find the ideal settings where my actions could take place. The selected locations inspire mystical, evocative, suggestive and ecstatic feelings. They evoke the spiritual in nature as well as the sentiment of the sublime. Sublime, in the sense that, on experiencing particular sites, I am taken in by the grandeur of nature and by feelings of awe, vastness and infinity. The idea behind these happenings is to render aesthetically these contemplative experiences that evoke the overwhelming power of nature. I usually de-contextualise familiar materials in order to render the commonplace mysterious. My happenings are intended to create situations in which the elements of everyday life and everyday manufacture are imbued with the strangeness and ambiguity of the poetic and the fantastic. I select materials and set them in unfamiliar but carefully balanced and geometrical compositions. These are meant to dignify or exalt particular locations that inspire contemplation and spiritual awareness.
My intent is not that of transforming the environment, but to make it more intimate, by manifesting its essentiality. The truth lies in the essence of things. I try to present nature with its simple forms in order to show its absolute value. The attributes of my works are a visual representation of the idea of the Absolute. Occasionally, I make some alterations to my photographic works to idealise the beauty of nature and the harmonious relationship of forms with the natural environment that embody them. Through the simplicity, the spatial clarity, the graceful harmony of forms and the essential, structural configurations that come into existence I try to enhance the idea of the primordial and the divine qualities of nature. The ultimate aim of this photographic work is to create powerful images in which nature and art become one.