What happens when an artist engages with an aphoristic text? What if the artist were paired up with a collaborating writer who has the task of documenting the artist’s work which responds to the same aphoristic text? How would such a dynamic collaboration evolve? The (met)afourisms project seeks to provide an answer to these questions.
The project takes effect at the point of intersection where the allusive and elusive style of aphoristic prose meets with the understanding of metaphor as a medium of transference and translation. (met)afourisms constitutes the work of four artists and the writing of their respective collaborators. Every artist involved in the project – Klitsa Antoniou (Cyprus), Trevor Borg (Malta), Vince Briffa (Malta) and Stuart Franklin (England) – responded by producing an artwork (or series of artworks) associated with their assigned aphoristic text written by Niki Young. The role of each artist was to translate the text in order to extrapolate and generate new meanings from existing ones. Each of the aforementioned artists was in turn paired with a collaborator – Irene Biolchini (Italy), Niki Young (Malta), Clive Zammit (Malta) and Sara Dolfi Agostini (Italy) respectively. The role of the collaborator was to follow the artist through their creative process, sharing ideas with them and documenting the progress. The richness afforded by the aphoristic style in turn provided each participant with the possibility of creative reinterpretation in such a way that the meaning of the aphorism itself could be disrupted and renegotiated in order to create a space which allowed for the emergence of new meanings, interpretations and approaches.
The artistic pieces produced will be exhibited at Spazju Kreattiv (Valletta, Malta) from the 4th to the 27th of May 2018. A monograph containing the photographs of the exhibited work (as well as other related images) together with the collaborators’ essays and an exclusive essay by well-known philosopher Graham Harman shall also be published. The book launch shall be held on the 24th of May at 7.30 p.m. at the Spazju Kreattiv Cinema Room.
This project is supported by Arts Council Malta – Malta Arts Fund Project Support Grant and endorsed by the Valletta 2018 Foundation.