STRATUM

This proposed work recalls and departs from the previous work that the artist has executed in May 2011 as part of a collaboration entitled ‘Cyclical’ http://www.josephcalleja.co.uk/cyclical. It will also inform a series of works that the artist is currently proposing the the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta which will explore the idea of skin - the idea of it being a barrier between two entities.

Using impermanent pigment, the artist has made a painting informed by the sea as documented just off the island of Comino. Then this painting will be submerged into Kamo river accross from Weissraum where the left marks will document the distinction between something that looks like water and water itself. 

The way this concept is executed is quite poetic and the process itself echoes Japanese attention to the ephemeral happenings of life, elevating them to ethereal levels.

painting hanging in gallery

painting taken down and submerged in Kamo river for 1 min

painting hanging in gallery again with remaining paint fragments falling apart by the effect of river water

STRATUM

For this show in Weissraum, the artist is adapting four of his latest works to reflect on his practice and the questions his work is inducing him to ask. Influenced by his recent trip to Japan, from Tokyo to Megijima, and especially the Japanese people, his attention focuses on how things become embedded within a person or a nation. The relationship between how things appear and what things are has emerged as key in the artist’s research and this exhibition and residency in Japan will further that enquiry. Being close to Robert Callender’s practice, giving attention to the objects he observed and objects that he made, is providing the artist with the opportunity to witness how such concepts already exist in solid art works. This exhibition marks the starting point of the artist's residency in Osaka, for which new work will be created as part of the artist's stay there. This work will be exhibited as part of a collective at the end of September and shown again in Kyoto in October.