“The seed of this exhibition was sown one moment last autumn at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. One painting stopped me in my tracks. For some time, I had been feeling constricted by the narrative, which had been a defining feature of so much of my work in recent years,” Buttigieg said.

“I often longed to unshackle myself from the tyranny of stories and instead to let colours, paint and composition evoke a thought or feeling. Then in Liverpool, my eyes fell on Bruce McLean’s ‘Oriental Garden, Kyoto’. Its abstract simplicity and clarity overwhelmed me. This is when a long chapter in my artistic work finally closed. Sheela / Sansun(a) is the new chapter.”

His work primarily deals with birth and motherhood. Traced back to the 11th century, the Sheela Na Gig, a depiction of a figure pulling open an exaggerated vulva, was possibly a symbol for fertility worship, or a symbol to stray off evil or a warning against lust.

Sansuna, also a mother figure, is the heroic giantess who carried megaliths across the island of Gozo, building the Ġgantija Temples in 3600 BC. Carrying her half-human, half-giant children on her shoulder and balancing a slab of stone on her head, she constructed this temple complex to evoke fertility and rain.

Buttiġieġ merges illustrations of Sheela and Sansuna, with imagery of primitive symbolism, vivid language, and visuals related to video games and films, which have brought the artist back to his childhood and early days of drawing.

Buttiġieġ’s work also deals with the notion of the feminine, not as a concept that is traditionally associated with qualities or behaviours of the female gender, but as a spirit or feeling that goes beyond our conscious psyche.

Through the ambiguity surrounding Sheela’s beginnings, historical significance, and purpose, and Sansuna’s androgynous qualities, Buttiġieġ has crafted a new tale. It highlights the sexual nature of the human body and invites us to question and challenge socially constructed definitions of gender that have shaped human societies for hundreds of years.

In Sheela / Sansun(a): Bridging Islands, Buttigieg combines the past and the present to create new narratives that resist convention. While paying a powerful tribute to Sheela Na Gig and Sansuna, he addresses fundamental questions and concepts that humans have grappled with since the beginning of time.

The exhibition opened on 5th June and will be running until 26th June.

This project is generously supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Tourism of Malta, Cultural Diplomacy Fund.