FEATURE Art and Gender based violence

Feature /Malta / Art / Violence against women

December 2022 - February 2023

MALTA

JOANNA DELIA AND MARIA LOUISA LIOTTA CATRAMBONE

WHERE ARE THE ANGRY BIRDS?

Art and Gender Based Violence

REA Tort ta min. Photo by Elisa Von Brockdorff

Iam sick of seeing ‘artists’ paint flowers. I am sick of seeing ‘artists’ paint landscapes. I am sick of seeing ‘artists’ make art about discovering who they are, about their identity this and identity that…

And I am sick of not seeing enough anger and angry, sexual violence, and bloody victims and degraded, helpless, desperate, abused limp figures in the works of artists in Malta. Of course, it’s not up to me, or to anyone else to tell artists what to do, but the lack of reflections on frustrating realities by the local artistic community and the absence of reactions explosive or not, to social ills is astounding.

Malta is full of invisible women. Women who have to hide their pregnancies when they have anencephalic foetuses growing inside them. Women who have to travel to have terminations which will save their life. Women who were deprived of financial independence because society expected them to stay home, clean, and paint flowers.

Women who are trapped, are invisible to the police and to justice, women who suffer physical and emotional abuse and cannot run away because neither the geography nor the tongues of their mothers, would allow it. Trapped until death - whether this comes by way of murder, or old age. So they paint landscapes. Or oranges. Or orchids. As do their sisters. To calm down.

I asked Maria Louisa Liotta Catrambone, a criminologist with extensive hands-on experience with a human rights NGO, to give us the low-down on the statistics.

A 2018 analysis of prevalence data from 2000-2018 across 161 countries and areas, conducted by WHO on behalf

of the UN Interagency working group on violence against women, found that worldwide, nearly 1 in 3 of women have been subjected to intimate partner violence (marital rape, femicide), sexual violence and harassment (rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, child sexual abuse, forced marriage), human trafficking (slavery, sexual exploitation), female genital mutilation and child marriage.

A number that however increases if we consider, and we can’t not do it, emotional and psychological abuse, street harassment, stalking and cyber-harassment. Even when there is no physical violence, abusive language or actions can be very damaging.

Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation that continues to be an obstacle to achieving equality, development, and peace. The immediate and long-term physical, sexual, and mental consequences for women and girls can be devastating, including death.

Malta remembers the tragic horror of femicide through the names of its victims – Mary Saliba, Rose Casaletto, Angela Debono, Carmen Micallef, Gemma Fonk, Diane Gerada, Sylvia King, Jane Vella, Maria Buhagiar, Vanessa Grech and her 17 month old daughter Ailey, Rachel Muscat, Pauline Tanti, Josette Scicluna, Patricia Attard, Doris Schembri, Lyudmila Nykytiuk, Theresa Vella, Caroline Magri, Eleanor Mangion, Maria Carmela Fenech, Antonia Micallef, Shannon Mak, Yvette Gajda, Margaret Mifsud, Charlene Farrugia, Meryem Bugeja, Silvana Muscat, Catherine Agius, Paulina Dembraska, Christine Sammut, Irena Abadzhieva, Karen Cheatle, Lourdes Agius, Marija Lourdes, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Angele Bonnici, Chantelle Chetcuti, Rita Ellul, and Bernice Cassar.

These are the names of the women killed, at the hands of a man since 1978 in Malta.

But there is no corner of the world where women do not suffer any kind of violence, the latitude does not save anyone. Even more complicated is the situation of the migrant women forced to suffer unspeakable violence in refugee camps and during their dangerous migration routes. With MOAS-Migrant Offshore Aid Station, the international humanitarian organization founded in 2013 in response to the Mediterranean maritime migration phenomenon and now dedicated to providing humanitarian aid and services to the most vulnerable people around the world, we have been direct witnesses. We have seen with our own eyes the physical and psychological wounds of women who, after spending terrible months in Libya, risked losing their lives at sea. We have heard the stories of the cruelties inflicted on Rohingya women fleeing Myanmar. And we continue to witness the violence committed in the conflict in Ukraine. In this context the voice of women plays a very important role. Among the various instruments of protest and emancipation, art has constituted the megaphone of important messages turned to the entire society, a vessel and tool for expression and rebellion against a male dominant.

From Artemisia Gentileschi in the 1600s to Cecilia Beaux two centuries later, from Georgia Okeef to Frida Kahlo, from Clara Peet to Khathe Kollwitz, all these women have fixed in their works a representation of the female voice, a vision of the world shaped by them.

Emma Attard, Black Horse Stallion (2022) ink, coloured pen and crayon on paper

“Art has constituted the megaphone of important messages turned to the entire society, a vessel and tool for expression and rebellion against a male dominant.”

Feature /Malta / Art / Violence against women

December 2022 - February 2023

MALTA

Continued

Today, in the increasingly integrated system of the art of fashion and design, we can hear the voice of women for issues of great social and political importance such as those of women inclusiveness, equity, and social and cultural rights from women artists. The issues of gender difference represented by the Kenyan Ato Malinda, the prejudices on the body of the black woman by the South African Mary Sibande, and the the sexual discrimination represented by the South African Stephanie “Kenyaa” Mzee, are precious contributions that enrich the path towards gender equality and the eradication of violence against women.

What about the local scene? What are malta based artists’ reactions to vicious murders and the delays or ineffective judicial procedures which follow them? I tried to recall the instances when artists reacted.

When it comes to theatre and performing arts, I must admit we have seen some realistic, visceral reactions to gender based violence. In 2013 TAC theatre staged Kenyetta Lethridge’s play Innocent Flesh with in-your-face interpretations of the realities of various forms of abuse, while not will last month 4Jays Theatre and actors Shaian Debono and Aleandro Bartolo staged Vjola, a play on domestic violence to coincide with The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The work Grace | Rofflu staged in 2009 by the Rubberbodies Collective and directed by Jimmy Grima was very powerful and explored a relationship which meandered from love to violence using dance and physical theatre.

Experimental theatre in Malta also saw the launch of Alice in Wonderless

. . Land, DIY Theatre by Teatru Malta for ZiguZajg 2020 which explores and highlights the impact of a patriarchal society and is designed to be set up in schools to hopefully inspire teenagers to break away from the shackles of their predecessors.

Teatru Malta also staged Laringa Mekkanika (A Clockwork Orange) in 2019 - adapting a classic dark and violent tale for a teenage audience, hoping to spur discussion amidst the rising cases of reported psychological problems in these age groups, with increasing incidence of self-harm perhaps coinciding with increased exposure to a more easily available relentless bombardment with violent narratives and imagery on social media and the internet.

A simple internet search reveals a poor response to gender based violence and

C.N.S.R.D (2022), CO-MA, Charcoal on Canson 180gr ‘C’ A grain paper Drawing Dimensions | 60cm x 80cm rape locally and one comes across a few exhibitions and works of visual arts with victimization rather than anger. And dreams of atonement rather than a call for change.

The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality organized a show for the Valletta 2018 capital of culture entitled ‘Domestic violence portrayed in original art creations’ by artist Raymond Darmanin. The works portray dreamy, floaty women escaping. No anger. No blood. No violence. The message seems to be Run Woman Run with no allusion to fury directed towards the perpetrator. We seem to be saying - Let’s not dwell on the reason for your pain. Or the mention of pain at all.

Another image which pops up is of a painting with the title The Rape of Prosperina who taking after the famous marble statue by Bernini is romanticized in work by Luca Azzopardi. Both Bernini and Azzopardi seem to want whoever looks at the image to be aroused and not infuriated.

The Catholic Church in Malta sponsored an exhibition with the Jean Anthide foundation titled (Un)silenced: celebration of self-determination, solidarity and liberation – Archdiocese of Malta and once again the focus is on the victim. No mention of a perpetrator. Artist Carol Zammit - one of the artists in the show actually shows some anger but the rest is more flowers and landscapes - the take home lesson here seems to be, take a deep breath, forgive him, forget about him. Rebuild your life. Be a silent warrior. Carry your rapists child to date. Don’t bother about your shared assets, better poor and free than secure and trapped. Paint some more grass moving in the wind with little tiny flowers. It’s calming.

But there are also many visual artists who are finally showing their anger and frustration. CO-MA has been creating powerful, manipulated, hyper-realistic charcoal drawings which are evocative and angry and dark. The mostly female subjects are being silenced and blind folded and they look furious and beautifully deranged.

Ryan Falzon’s local show We Lost The War (2017), in Berlin under the name Fritz ist Amerikanish (2020), was more about political violence, ideology, terrorism and organized crime, rather than gender based or domestic

Fritz ist Amerikanish, Ryan Falzon The Impulstanz performance in August 2022, Charlene Galea

violence. But it’s angry. And anger at the systems which permit any form of institutionalized violence should be brought to light and criticised.

Charlie Chauchi’s show Sheherazade at Valletta Contemporary in 2019 revolved around depictions of abuse, debauchery, beauty and brutality in the Maltese-run soho clubs and brothels in the late half of the 20th century. The installation is immersive, velvety but provocative with confusing plays on words and nude women who vanish as you walk by them.

Artist Charlene Galea recently performed in the work titled Her Mum’s Clothes in Vienna, based on the true story of 4 mothers and the relationship with their daughters, where one of the women is forced into prostitution and violently abused by her husband. The actresses wore the actual, now deceased victim’s red coat.

But possibly the most powerful works seen recently which deal with the ever present reality of gender-based violence are those by Rachelle Deguara and Emma Attard.

Rachelle’s most recent work is a textbased site-specific performance called No Place Like Home. It was part of the emerging artists’ exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv, curated by Trevor Borg and supported by Agenzija Zaghzagh, called Shifting Context II.

The artist borrows the stories of previous femicides in Malta and interpreters them, switching the gender to emphasize how society has become desensitized to cases of violence against women. Subverting the dominant mythology of the feminine as submissive, the text explores the tensions between the themes of power and subservience, constraint and liberation, subjugation and empowerment.

Her first debut performance installation was during the exhibition Debatable Lands. The artist did a performative intervention about four women who were killed because of systematic failure, and she was preparing for a protest. The sound installation narrated the stories of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Kim Borg Virtu, Miriam Pace, and Chantelle Chetcuti.

Emma Attard uses art as a tool to therapeutically scream and externalise the rawness of her experiences, rendering trauma concrete so that it can be released. The work exhibited at the exhibition Groundwaters, curated by Gabriel Zammit at Valletta Contemporary are literally drawings ripped out of her sketchbook. They speak of the unspeakable, blowing the viewer away with their intense simplicity, dripping with fury.

Emma Attard’s drawings were, perhaps originally not meant to be seen but as Gabriel says ‘Ultimately her work typifies the aesthetic transformation of pain into emancipatory potential and as viewers, if we can get past the gut punch and the uncomfortable pull of looking at someone else’s tragedy, what is left is a fragment of utopian potential, which is indicative of the art’s power to merge the real and the imaginary in the pursuit of catharsis.’

STRADA STRETTA, STRADA STRETTA, VALLETTA VALLETTA T: + 356 2122 0449 T: + 356 2122 0449

Spotlight /African Art in Malta

December 2022 - February 2023

MALTA

CHRISTINE XUEREB SEIDU

Commissioned by Spazju Kreattiv, Ghanaian curator Dr. Bernard AkoiJackson introduces the group show ‘“What’chu Looking at? Who you Speaking with?”: A Gazing

All Around’ showcasing the work of ten artists of African descent.

Akoi-Jackson describes the continent of Africa as a complex, intricate and unfathomable entity which often has the west trying to totalize it. In this show with work by creatives that operate from Africa and her Diaspora, we come to the realisation that it is impossible to do so. Contemporary African artists express their many lived realities across a continent made up of fifty-four (54) countries. With what materials, media, techniques and technologies are their ideas being wrought into objects, situations and complex aesthetic propositions? What, in terms of globality, constitutes our collective becomingness and imagination in the recent experience of the world? This exhibition proposes an investigation of some of the possible responses to the above-stated questions in a variety of novel and audacious forms from subSaharan African artists and some who reside in the Diaspora. The first part of the title: “What’chu Looking at? Who you Speaking with?” bears a similar sense of audacity and daring. Even though it sounds accusatory, it is not. What is intended is a provocation towards reflexivity. The second part, ‘A Gazing all Round’ suggests that the erstwhile othering gaze is now shared all around, such that there is neither any subject nor object. What we have now is a common sphere of looking back and forth. What this two-way, or indeed, poly-reciprocal gaze yields cannot be pinpointed. It is something that is immanent. We all live to learn what it becomes. This is an exhibition of contemporary Art from an intricate entity.

Inspired by the Movement of NonAlignment from the 1960s, which played an important part in the process of decolonization and the independence movements in Africa, Christian Guerematchi’s (Congo-Slovenia) NonAligned Movement is an artistic search for black European identity. Blick Bassy (Cameroon) also draws on the notion of home and separation, having lived in France since 2001 and presents a film that investigates these issues. Nelago Shilongoh’s (Namibia) performance reflects on the history of domestic work and black women from as early as the

ARTISTS FROM AFRICA AND HER DIASPORA DISRUPTING COLONIAL NARRATIVES IN MALTA SHOW

Sa by Nelago Shilongoh. Photo courtesy of Ana Córcoles Siegersbusch

CHRISTINE XUEREB SEIDU founded Christine X Art Gallery in 2004 after a university degree in Art History and Anthropology. She has returned to Malta after a year in Ghana where she explored African art and culture.

Participants in Kwasiada Frankaa by Akwasi Afrane Bediako. Photo courtesy of the artist.

1910s, and its imprint as continued heritage in contemporary Namibia. Along with the techniques of movement, the interdisciplinary performance features historical archives that make a part of the conversation. Similarly, Priscilla Kennedy (Ghana) acknowledges historical connections between craft work and the subordination of women through oppressive structures and domestic systems, viewing them also as sites of subversion and potential emancipation, using forms of imaging that reference her body as a medium to draw connections between personal narratives, race and feminist politics.

Tracy Thompson’s (Ghana) topographical works on micropolymer structures within her postproduced foods has its entire process of phasing between micro and macro, computational and biological, twodimensional and three-dimensional, resonating with the exhibition’s theme in complicating a more-than-humancentred gaze. Akwasi Afrane Bediako’s (Ghana) work blurs the boundaries of the physical space and the virtual, playing with the audience’s perception of what reality is through engaging them with Virtual Reality, Gaming, 3D animation video and Augmented Reality applications. Simnikiwe Buhlungu (South Africa), one of the exhibitors of the Milk of Dreams’ main show at Venice Biennale 2022, researches the production of knowledge, how it is disseminated, and by whom. Through film, sound, installation, and text, Buhlungu transports viewers into metaphorical and theoretical considerations of the ways we come to ‘know’ and what informs those narratives.

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson’s (Ghana) use of found flip-flops, which metaphorically represent diverse aspects of the human experience, transforms as topography, fabric, symbol, sensation or tales. Contrary to Tagoe-Turkson’s process of turning found objects with their own stories into an artwork, Eric Gyamfi’s (Ghana) work focuses on two portraits and translating thoughts and opinions of these portraits into new characters through analogue/ chemical processes as well as varying weather/ environmental conditions. Dereje Shiferaw (Ethiopia) tells his own thoughts and views as an African through his paintings.

Anyone willing to experience the lived realities of contemporary African artists across the African continent is invited to visit Space A, Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Valletta from Friday 27th January to 5th March 2023 which also includes a programme of events.

NAM by Christian Guerematchi. Photo courtesy of Alwin Poiana Fixing Shadows: Julius & I by Eric Gyamfi. Photo courtesy of the artist.