Silence mary attard
La Valette VIP Club Lounge • Malta International Airport September - November 2012
Silence mary attard
Silence by E. V. Borg
Mary Attard is a lyric poet of exquisite delicacy, nobility and sensitivity. Through simplicity, economy and a child-like approach she captures the essence of life, an overwhelming universality through therapy and healing. Her art is hypnotic. Her expression is inspired by the sheer beauty in nature that has an affinity with the silken feeling expressed by Gerard Manley Hopkins in his poem ‘Pied Beauty’. The artist is attracted to little things like: the chaotic entanglement of dried grass, the abstractions of reflections, the glorious splashes of colour at sunset, the child-like wonder of geometry in mundane things or play of light that the general public might bypass or ignore without giving a second thought or not even consider worth the attention. In her case she stops to reflect and meditate: ‘all things bright and beautiful’. The older she grows the more she becomes aware of a different level of consciousness that she feels the urge to explore and revel in photographically. And
Summer Holidays
as her subjects are not the usual images captured in photography she has doubts about their general appeal and that she may only attract the attention of a relative minority. Probably in this she is mistaken and it is only her fear to excel as her images are universal. Perhaps the artist is referring to her particular reality when she points to ‘this different level of consciousness’. Reality exists only as an ideal, like truth and justice. Like history it is relative and subjective and in continuous flux. Change is its essence. It evolves and develops. It is ephemeral and temporary but continuous. Each person believes in an individual and personal reality. Man would like to change its ephemeral quality to capture it and make it permanent to enjoy it more as life’s experience is overwhelmingly beautiful. But the more he tries the more difficult it becomes to capture it as the horizon that vanishes into nothingness the nearer he approaches. This is the essence of reality: its abstraction. And this is what the artist captures in her art: silence, solitude, tranquillity, serenity, peace, time and space. Perhaps the subject is only an excuse. ‘Silence’, a reflection of a red sky in a pool of water and ‘Nature’s Watercolour’, a touch of rosy hue and red hot embers in a sunset illustrate the abstract nature of a fleeting moment rendered concrete in a frame captured on
Alleyway
film. ‘Meditation’, weeds and their shadow in water is another perfect example of wonder in front of humble images that stimulate reflection and contemplation. The experience through reflection is transformed into expression. ‘Alleyway’ with hanging clothes fluttering in the breeze; ‘Summer Holidays’, umbrellas on a beach with an impression of a surfer and distant tents and ‘Movement’ just squiggles on black paper show the delicacy of drawing in soft pastel, the economy of means and the colour of paper as auxiliary to the expression. ‘Study in Circles’ an assemblage in CDs, in exploiting geometry is almost surreal and might be an influence of Man Ray. Such inspiration might be significant and even unique considering that hardly any other local artist was ever influenced by Dada art. The dried plants trio in collage expose the artist’s delicate qualities in the choice of silk, lurex and tweed with feminine aplomb. The results, so simple and economic are almost incredible. The silence of solitude is expressed in ‘Liquid Gold’ a boat in a millpond reflection. ‘Old Time Charm’ depicts the yard of an old building saturated in coloured light while ‘Play of Light’ captures a bright blue door in spot light. Yet ‘The Wave’ is characteristic of the artist’s
Study in Circles
wonder before nature. Her reaction is silence. Silence emanates from the monumental solemnity in the grandeur of nature’s repertoire in a sunset or sunrise, in the ‘Glorious Chaos’ of dried grass, the Mary Attard silence of mountains, the silence of forests, the silence of lakes that Wordsworth regarded as spirituality or the spirit of a place or enclave. Surely it is not the silence of the grave but the silence in wonder at life, at the vigour and spirit of life. The artist admits that it is quite an achievement when she finds a person who not only tunes in to her language but actually finds her images healing in some subtle way. When this happens she feels communion with the participant in sharing the joy her image instils. Her expression becomes her own reality first and its appreciation then becomes the reality of the participant. Silence is space for music. The music of the forests, lakes and mountains is the music of nature. 12. 08. 2012 The Dance of Life
Movement
Old Time Charm
Play of Light
A Study in Blues
The Wave Glorious Chaos
Meditation
SILENCE Exhibition by MARY ATTARD Exhibition Catalogue La Valette VIP Club Lounge Malta International Airport September – November 2012 Acknowledgements: Exhibition Catalogue La Valette Club Valletta Fund Management Art Discussion Group Mr. Aldo Busuttil
Nurtured
Passion
Photo credit: Mary Attard Curator: E. V. Borg Design & Layout: E. V. Borg Text: E. V. Borg © (copyright) Front cover: Silence Back Cover: Nature’s Watercolour Front Cover (inside front): Water Lillies Back Cover (inside back): Luzzu Reflections Title Page: Liquid Gold Printing: Best Print Co. Ltd ISBN No: 978-99957-0-298-4 T: 21574434 • M: 99240979 • E: samba@waldonet.net.mt W: http://mary-attard.fineartamerica.com
Dried Plant Design - 1
Dried Plant Design - 2
Dried Plant Design - 3
Exhibitions 1997: ‘Timelessness’, Ministry Hall, Rabat, Gozo, September – Photography 1999: ‘Retrospective Art Exhibition’, at the Labyrinth Restaurant in Strait Street, Valletta, 1-31 August – Mixed Media 1999: ‘Perspectives in Pastels’, German Maltese Circle, Valletta with artist Anthony Lucian Cauchi, 17th November – 7th December, – Soft Pastels 2001: ‘Mystic Cocktail’, Bay Street, St Julians with artist Denis Calleja, 21st May – 3rd June – Photography (mine) 2010: ‘Unity in Diversity’ a Collective, de La Salle Palace, Valletta, 5 – 22 May – Photography 2011: ‘Timelessness’, Intercontinental Hotel, St Julians, 18 April – 23 June – Photography 2011: ‘Serenity’, Cavalieri Hotel, St. Julians, 17 August – 18 September – Mixed media (Retrospective) 2012: ‘Captured Moments’, Ministry Hall, Rabat Gozo, 23rd March – 20th April – Photography 2012: ‘Silence’, La Valette VIP Club Lounge, Malta International Airport, 1 September – 31 November – Mixed Media