Artist Joseph Farrugia showcases paintings at Bureau Iniala curated by Marie Gallery 5. He speaks to Maria Galea about his works’ underlying themes

The solo exhibition Residue by acclaimed artist Joseph Farrugia, where figures are reduced to unmethodical particles, gives attention to the space between such particles rather than the completeness of the physical body itself.

The exhibition is running until October 21 at Bureau Iniala, organised and curated by Marie Gallery5.

Heavily based on scientific principles, Farrugia describes the figures in his solo exhibition as ethereal, “conceding a sense of fluidity in space and time”.

MG: What inspired this collection of artworks and how do you identify in it?

JF: In many ways, this collection of works is a progression of my past works over a span of more than 30 years. My drawings and painting have always delved into existential themes which essentially ask questions about the nature of being. Residue is an exhibition that invites the viewer to reflect about the reason for being, and what we leave behind. 

Many of these works were inspired by an image I encountered while visiting a museum, where visitors could rest on three stools against a concrete wall.

The constant flow of visitors seated on these stools leave an impression of their heads and shoulders on the wall which form a sense of collective identity through the traces they leave behind.

In a similar manner, we leave traces of ourselves as we interact with our environment and with others, and are in turn influenced by the residue of others.

Although the imagery is fundamentally an exploration into spirituality, this sense of abstraction is also experienced in the digital world in the way we leave traces of ourselves when we purchase, network with others, and exchange information.

MG: How does the medium chosen for these works reflect their subject matter?

JF: The preferred media for these works are charcoal and soft pastels. I find these ideal for projecting a sense of fading – fading into the infinite.

Some drawings are composed exclusively of thousands of tiny strokes that collectively build into a figure of a person juxtaposed against a vast expanse, or blended against a background like a shadow.

I also find a crayon to be a more intimate and, in a way, impulsive medium which allows for gestural strokes that may also reflect the current mood of the artist and which is thus projected on the artwork.

MG: Science plays an important part in forming our view of the world. In your works, you interpret the understanding of scientific studies in relation to our existence. Has your research on this series helped you develop your understanding? 

JF: There are certainly references to scientific thought in these drawings. Science is about discovering truth and explaining the ‘what’ of existence. Its major limitation is that it does not address the ‘why’ of being or how things are the way they are, which is the realm of spirituality.

I believe that art can be a catalyst to bring the two together. This is not an entirely novel thought, as we find this constructive dialogue between science and art even in the renaissance, as happened in the application of perspective techniques, for example.

In today’s world, science is making extraordinary progress in exploring the universe at cosmic level, most recently through the Webb telescope. At the other end of the spectrum, the marvels of the quantum world enable us to look and search inward and contemplate the nature of matter.

I find that, even though I am certainly not a scientist, these discoveries inspire artists to look beyond what is, and to provoke questions about the nature of existence, even if such questions do not have definite answers. This is why art, science, spiritualty and religion have always been at the core of human civilisation. 

Residue is on until October 21 at Bureau Iniala, curated by Marie Gallery5.