The Curse of Creativity

The Splendid in Strait Street was recently home to 30 odd characters, who, however, have nothing to do with the venue’s infamous past. These characters are, rather, figures that were brought to life by Paul Scerri who has been active in the local art scene for over 30 years, although somewhat inconspicuously.

Having first trained under Esprit Barthet at the School of Art in Valletta and then furthering his artistic education at the Accademia Belle Arti Pietro Vanucci of Perugia on scholarship, Scerri backed this up by studying at the Istituto Statale D’Arte G. Ballardini in Faenza, completing his studies in Imola.

Upon his return from his studies abroad, he took up the post of teacher at the Art and Design Centre in Valletta and he is currently a visiting lecturer to the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta.

Having executed works in an abstract idiom in the past, Scerri has in recent years returned to figurative sculptures. An artist like Scerri, who also works with natural stone, he feels that he cannot compete with mother nature in creating abstract forms.

The Decision Maker

Scerri’s exhibition is composed of 30 freestanding and wall-hanging sculptures that were produced in the past year and which had previously never been exhibited. Scerri’s sculptures reveal him to be satirical, clever, and sensitive to injustice. His figures’ gestures, accessories and activities, make them very human, and are often the result of Scerri’s personal experiences with people from all walks of life, or even derived from current affairs.

Despite this, his sculp- tures and the meanimg of each figure is opento individual interpretation.

Scerri excels in creating intrigue and in portraying stereo-typical characters, while delicately adding notions of inequity and narcissism. His characters are as real as you want them to be, even though most of them do not exactly represent the human form.

Rather, they are creatures that the artist himself conjured up. These figures that are typically portrayed down to the waist, have small round heads with tiny features, no eyebrows and donning rather blank expressions, together with elongated necks and arms.

On the other hand, among the more realistic figures are The Decision Maker and Running with Scissors: two big-bellied and bald males with naked torsos.

My personal fav-ourite is The curse of creativity, in which the figure passively holds an empty cage, has a funnel entering its skull and a gilded mask covering its mouth making it difficult for him to utter a word.

Scerri’s sculptures reveal him to be satirical, clever, and sensitive to injustice

Il-Politiku politikant is then memorable for the way Scerri managed to balance the round-bottomed politician who appears to be quite content with himself.

Like the name given to one of the exhibits, the exhibition title –‘Running with scissors’ – evokes a sensation of risk and recklessness, and it is also the title given to one of the more realistic of Scerri’s figures.

Scissors are also perilously held by one of his figures at the throat features in the exhibition, in a sculpture titled Setting your Priorities.

All of the sculptures are polychromed and most have specifically chosen areas that were highlighted by the use of gold. This gives them an aura that one would associate with the depiction of holy figures in the history of art. Moreover, some of Scerri’s sculptures also carry small gilded wings, typically associated with angels.

Gold is employed on a peg and numbers portrayed on the figures’ torso in the miserable-looking figure titled Phrenic, on the blindfold in The Decision Maker and Compulsive liar, and also in the latter figure’s lawn-like hair, among others.

Three Statues

The truth is that these figures are anything but holy or angelic. This use of gold and wings is, therefore, ironic especially when they are considered together with the characteristics these same figures portray.

The point Scerri must be putting across is that some people are utterly oblivious to the despicable actions they themselves are capable of, and then there are others who are perfectly aware.

This is why Scerri’s figures are intricate representations of human actions and activities.

Yet, despite these negative or unattractive connotations that evoked the theme of a work, Scerri’s sculptures are appeal-ing and the truth is that a Paul Scerri work is distinguished by a recognisable style and impeccable technique.

The exhibition was curated by Lisa Gwen Baldacchino.