Charlene Vella reviews Instrumental, a photographic exhibition by Jean Pierre Gatt that focuses on musical instruments seen from an unusual perspective

Jean Pierre Gatt is a cinematographer who has, through his love of photography and music, set up an exhibition of photographs, titled Instrumental, images that beautifully complement each other.

Gatt has, for over two decades, worked in the film and television industry, having been involved in music videos, documentaries and a variety of other short and full-length films destined for local as well as foreign audiences.

Latch

The videographer, who is an active member of the European Film Academy in Berlin, is perhaps less known for his artistic photo-graphy. This is, however, the fifth exhibition that Gatt has dedicated to his photographic work. It is, as the title suggests, devoted to musical instruments. The idea for this project manifested itself two years ago, but the photographs themselves were captured in the last months.

His first photographic exhibition was held at Palazzo De Piro, Mdina, in June 2013, while his second exhibition was a collaboration with the sculptor Derek Nice, writer Wayne Hill and architect Paul Gibson, titled Juxtapositions and held at St James Cavalier in Valletta in January 2014. The exhibition later travelled to the Aldeburgh Cinema Galleries in East Anglia as part of the Aldeburgh International Arts Festival. Gatt also participated in another local collective exhibition in 2015.

Gatt has opted to delve into the graphical elements of musical instruments in order to create linear, yet sinuous, compositions

Instrumental is Gatt’s second one-man exhibition and it is, as he has termed it, an abstract photographic oeuvre. While his 2013 Coastal Fragments exhibition saw him and his camera venture outdoors and take to the local shores, this exhibition is, on the other hand, rather introspective. The photographs exhibited in Instrumental are even more abstract in that the subject is often so zoomed in that it becomes obscured.

Coral

This is because Gatt has opted to delve into the graphical elements of musical instruments in order to create these linear, yet sinuous, compositions. The subject matter is far from outright obvious. In fact, the exhibits are rather unorthodox images of instruments. These photographs are details of instruments that were highlighted through one light source. Gatt has himself, in the past, played drums and percussions, which explains his attraction to such instruments.

Through this exhibition, Gatt wanted to bring to the forefront musical instruments that he believes to be often ignored. He could have captured images of instruments in their more relatable forms, or he could have created compositions that are based on reality, but an unidentifiable one that is not easy to discern.

Meander

Armour and Zebra are, for instance, termed such because the result effect recalls an elaborate protective suit and the striped quadruped respectively. They are unconventional shots of shapes and forms, derived from musical instruments that have created an unconventional beauty.

The protagonists of the exhibition are instruments that were made available to Gatt by his friends: Christina and Daniel Cauchi’s collection at The Box creative space, and Noel Grech from Music Link in Birkirkara. The result is 19 images that were masterfully produced in black and white and printed on Aluminium Composite Panels (ACP).

Gatt’s choice to focus on the minutest of unrecognisable details might seem to defy what cameras were invented to construe. However, with the invention of photography, some artists felt that they had to justify their art by doing more than just represent reality, which they realised a camera could do. They, therefore, turned to non-representational art, which may ultimately still be derived from nature.

Taut

The same reasoning can be employed here, but Gatt has turned it on its head. In this case, the artist is a photographer and the result, that is in itself representational, is rendered abstract.

Instrumental is open at Palazzo De Piro, Mdina, until the end of April.