These Malta Illustrators Are Launching An Online Exhibition Exploring The Destruction Of Our Environment
A group of Malta-based illustrators have come together for an online exhibition called ‘Artna’ or Our Land, an exploration of responses to the destruction of our natural environment.
Artists from Malta Illustrators Community were invited to approach the theme as they wished, engendered in a vision, solution, celebration or message of protest to our relationship between destruction and our surroundings.
The exhibition involves works from familiar names in the local art scene, including Ed Dingli, Moira Zahra, Magda Azab, Steven Scicluna, Zack Ritchie, Marietta Mifsud and Derek Fenech, who all double as organisers of this initiative.
“As a newly-formed community of creative illustrators, we felt compelled to join forces and create a response to the current destruction of both our natural and built environments,” the collective said.
'And in the end the hardest thing for Xummiemu was to find a tree...' by Sebastian Tanti Burlò and 'Designer-finished, Spacious Interior, Stunning Views' by Adrian Gauci
“Like many others, we’re extremely frustrated by the unsustainable over-construction and general disregard for the environment by successive governments, but are encouraged by the increase in awareness and amount of young people we’ve seen get involved in protests and focus groups.”
The resulting exhibition features an array of interpretations, showcasing over-development, destruction and pollution, satire, anger and glimmers of hope.
'Who Needs Oxygen Anyway' by Andrew Worley and 'Il-ftit li fadlilna' by Steven Scicluna
'For Our Trees' by Ed Dingli and 'Għamlu sular iehor' by Marietta Mifsud
Calls for submission was also open to the wider illustration community, and the online exhibition will feature all entries submitted, the work of around 40 artists.
The A4 posters are available to print, download and share, encouraging the public to use them as their own symbols of protest. As a call for action, the collective asks the public to share them in their spaces – homes, classrooms, halls, places of work, and to snap pictures with hashtag #artna and #forourland.
“If we can’t show up in person, let’s try our best to make our voices heard anyway…we are urging the public to support local NGOs and focus-groups who work tirelessly to lobby the authorities on a range of important issues.”
'Mater Dolorosa' by Derek Fenech and 'Arkichetchkur' by Craig Macdonald
'A place once green' by Moira Zahra and 'Mighty Mechanical Crane' by Philip Sultana
'we have have no more time' by Magda Azab and 'I Need Space' by Zack Ritchie
See the full exhibition here.
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