The exhibition showcases the new series Ship of Fools (emoji) – a number of digital drawings composed of the use of emoji icons. A software program that replaces the conventional palette and brush selection with the emoji keyboard, designed and ideated by Joey Borg (@puterandborg), was used.

“The images seek out contemporary representations of the allegory of the Ship of Fools through emoji imagery, satirising our daily and mundane use of emoji icons carrying multiple meanings and new forms of conventions of expression,” Attard told Lovin Malta. 

The show also includes artworks from the series Id-Dgħajjes tal-Fidili – a body of work that finds its origins in the interest of re-tracing a number of distinctly etched ship graffiti via the use of an eye-tracking device.

The historical graffiti of interest are the ones specifically located on the facades of several wayside chapels on the island and a widely accepted interpretation of the meaning behind these types of ship graffiti is that they were vernacularly drawn as an ex-voto offering.

“The title Id-Dgħajjes tal-Fidili derives from a play on words interweaving cultural, historical, critical, and current contemporary aspects, provoking an open-ended reflection about the subjects we become through our techno-human relations: Is co-drawing with technology an act of faith towards techno-deterministic tendencies, or an act of foolishness and naive trust in data and technology?”

This series of works emerge out of Attard’s current practice-based research at the Edinburgh College of Art of the University of Edinburgh, funded by the Malta Arts Scholarship – Ministry of Education and Employment.

Matthew Attard’s practice investigates images as social and cultural constructs. His interest in the mechanisms of vision – its perceptual, physiological, and neurophysiological dimensions – is the focus of his practice-based PhD research at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh.

Raised in Malta, in 2009 he moved to Venice and collaborated with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the USA Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Later, he came back to Malta where in 2018 he obtained his Masters by Research Degree from the Digital Arts Department of the University of Malta. He first exhibited his work in a double solo show organized in 2014 at Galleria Michela Rizzo in Venice.

Since then, he has exhibited in Venice, Rome, Valletta, Genoa, London, Beijing, and Los Angeles among other cities.

Also, in 2017 he was selected for the 3rd edition of the Le Latitudini dell’Arte Biennale, at the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, while in 2018 he was awarded the Under 30 Euromobil Prize at ArteFiera, Bologna.

He was selected three times to show in the context of Ten Artists to Watch at LACDA, Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts, and in 2019 he was invited to participate in Artissima Telephone at the OGR spaces in Turin.

Recently, he was shortlisted for the Lumen Prize 2021. Rajt ma rajtx… naf li rajt was a major solo show, curated by Elyse Tonna at Valletta Contemporary in 2021.

He was also commissioned the work Here’s How I Did Not See What You Wanted Me To See as part of the OPEN digital residency at Blitz, Valletta, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini.

Tag someone that needs to check out this body of work while visiting Venice