A world inside

St James Cavalier in Valletta is currently hosting an art exhibition by Maree Azzopardi, an Australian artist of Maltese descent. The loss of her influential Maltese grandmother "was an event that made Azzopardi question one's connection to heritage, to land, to burial, to renewal, to spirit and the sacred, which is evident in Azzopardi's new metaphysical landscape paintings." Lycia Danielle Trouton writes about another exhibition in Sydney of Maree's work:

What kind of work does an artist produce when she spends a great deal of her time immersed in a landscape and culture imbued by the world’s oldest stone structures–megalithic buildings from Malta’s Temple Period, 3600—2500 BC? Maree Azzopardi, like other Maltese descendents living in Sydney brings with her a rich heritage. As well, she draws on the influences of Vermeer, Catholic iconography, Islamic mosaics and the advantages of new media technology. Her latest show exhibits a range of both colour and black and white photographs and digitized paintings on stretched canvases.

Azzopardi's images focus on domestic interiors, but she creates a sense of space suggesting intimate temples. She places the female nude in settings with props symbolic of rituals that order life: baptism, the partaking of wine and bread in communion, and the cleansing and shrouding of the dead body. What is eerily subversive is that while the images appear at first romantic, and even nostalgic, there is a distinct absence of signs of life.

'The world inside myself' - Sandra Aquilina talks to Maree Azzopardi about her life and work

Maree Azzopardi - Spirit land - a profile

Danish films this week at St James Cavalier