See A Reimagination Of Beauty At Photographer Alex Attard’s Mqabba Exhibition
Photographer Alex Attard’s latest exhibition is currently underway at the ‘Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq’ exhibition space situated in Mqabba.
The body of work mainly deals with themes of permanence and impermanence, in a metaphorical manner, “interrupting the ‘now’ and reinterpreting the ‘future'”.
“The series started quite unexpectantly. I have two beautiful granddaughters who live in the United States, one called Lily and the other called Ivy Rose. It all started when I had photographed Lily in black and white and gifted it to her, and I wanted to do the same for Ivy,” Attard told Lovin Malta.
He recounted how around the same time he was approached by Melanie Erixon and Antoine Farrugia, who offered the exhibition space for his use.
“Finding myself in nature and a new project to focus on bringing me into deeper contact with my surroundings and a concept started to formulate,” he explained.
'Poppy Rose'
According to the artist, the work mainly represents “creation and extinction, earthly and the divine, and reflection with termination.”
“‘Out of Now’ may be viewed as a reversal of the flower’s role wherein the flower becomes the pollinator instead of the pollinated, impregnating the photographer’s psyche with their current aesthetic,” he said.
The concept behind this exhibition was also born during the COVID-19 lockdown period, where uncertainty dominated the collective.
“One can feel an analogy between the times of uncertainty and the ‘end’ of our social lives with the death of these flowers, where we were all constrained to live in an out of now moment,” he explained.
Through the injection of bright colours, Attard envisions a new future normal, symbolizing an emerging spirit of hope, renewal, and new beginnings.
The photographer uses his camera as a basis to portray his vision, as a painter would his brush, to exploit and show up the various stages of a flower in all its stages.
Malta-based photographer Alex Attard often likes to blur the lines of documentation and artistic expression through his work. His work aims to observe, analyse absence and presence and record the overlooked performance.
Attard has had a number of solo exhibitions and international collaborations as well as the Venice Architecture Biennale.
The exhibition is currently available for viewing at ‘Il-Kamra Ta’ Fuq’ in Mqabba, until 14th November.
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