WATCH: Maltese Artist Creates Stunning Stop-Motion Video Mourning The Islands’ Changing Landscape

A Maltese artist has put together a heart-wrenching video, perfectly capturing the sentiments that much of the population has been expressing about rampant construction across the island.

After spending a few months studying at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague, Maltese artist Emma Grima was taken aback by the radical changes she saw in Malta’s skyline when she returned home for a visit.

Speaking to Lovin Malta, the artist said that she was aggravated by the number of buildings that had gone up or come down since she’d left Malta, even though she visited home after only four months.

She continued on to say that, as a Balluta resident, the views of the bay have been marred by cranes for years on end, and this, together with her shock upon returning to the island, inspired the piece, which took her three months to complete.

Grima’s piece is appropriately titled A Changing Skyline, and shows a millennia-long timelapse of construction on the Maltese islands, beginning with our ancient temples slowly being erected, and ending with the islands being swallowed by stacks of concrete tower blocks.

On her website, Grima describes herself as a visual artist who specialises in photography. She talked us through the process of making the piece, saying that the Maltese Islands were laser-cut in order to create as perfect a rendering as possible. Clay was used for the buildings, and the sea was molded out of playdoh she made herself. The video is composed of around 1000 photos, taken across three months, with the sea being moved and remolded by hand between each shot.

We can’t argue with the result; fairly impressive we must say. The video can also be found on the artist’s Instagram page.

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