“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road” − Jack Kerouac, On the Road.

Route 56 immediately kindles images of Ameri­can motorways and the long stretches of tarmacked surfaces distributed over the vast expanse of the huge country, a gigantic political and geographical entity of 52 states. In fact, Route 56 connects four of these states: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

The term ‘route’ also evokes American road trips, driving large fuel-guzzling cars and embarking on life-defining trips of self-discovery. One of the most famous Ameri­can road trips to be recorded was that of beat generation writer Jack Kerouac, immortalised in his celebrated novel On the Road. 

Although it is generally considered to be a work of fiction with the two protagonists bearing fictitious names, it is assumed that they represent Kerouac himself and fellow beatnik Neal Cassidy and is a documentation of their four-year journey across the US  that happened between 1947 and 1951.

Besides the aspect of self-discovery and adventure, a road trip gene­rally concludes itself through an Odyssean return to domestic comfort. However, there are examples of other such trips which end in tragedy, such as in Ridley Scott’s film Thelma and Louise aboard a 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible and Bonny and Clyde’s real-life drama.

Road trips to bedlam

An imagined road trip is the theme of a joint exhibition by Etienne Farrell and Mark Mallia. The artistic soulmates share ideas and a studio in the dreamy village of Mqabba.

Although the rather rural location of the studio offers some relief from the hectic life happening in other parts of the island, the two artists still feel suffocated in their predicament. News still slithers in via the daily ration of stories of dysfunctional politics, environmental disregard and the restrictions brought about by COVID-19, the latter of which maroon the two artists to a life hundreds of kilometres away from the intellectual refuge achieved by travelling to other countries. 

The inherent claustrophobic nature of our tiny country precipitates this throttling, this running out of breath while paradoxically going nowhere. The geography prohibits it and pollution and allergies do the rest.

Unlike Kerouac’s case, no road trip of renewal and self-discovery is possible. Home offers scant respite from the overwhelming general feeling of lethargy and apathy that consumes the best of us.

A flight of fancy to fuel creative juices and escape the straitjacket of ennui that numbs artistic expression

However, there are no limits set, geographical or otherwise, for the two artists when they decided to embark on an imaginary road trip, a flight of fancy titled Route 56, to fuel their creative juices and escape from the straitjacket of ennui that numbs artistic expression.

The promotional snapshot of the two artists, driving a Lotus Esprit borrowed from a friend, sets the mood for the exhibition. The powerful sportscar is a symbol of freedom, a portent of danger, the speed it can reach consuming vast distances. One meets new acquaintances on such trips along the highways defined by the two artists’ uncanny resourcefulness at role-playing. No speed limit restricts them as they savour the adrenaline rush of their adventure into make-belief uncharted territory.

These new acquaintances can’t wait to spill out their sorry biographies. These anti-heroes are the offspring of the two artists’ ruminations into the subconscious. They refer, rather disparagingly, to these creatures of imagination as ‘zombies’, thus endowing them with soulless inhuman attributes. 

Maybe under the perpetual expanse of sky of the American Route 56, doppelgängers might exist; wholesome souls who are naively accommodating and ready to house the road trippers for the night; and monsters who can’t control their instincts for violence and murder and ready to slit throats at the most absurd of whims.

Loneliness is a common denominator and all are ready to pour their heart out, to lay bare their emotions and divulge their most intimate secrets to the two strangers in the fast flashy car. This alternative surreal messed-up take on reality is the underlying concept of the exhibition.

The numerological value of the number 56

The two artists ascribe numerolo­gi­cal relevance to the number 56. Mallia celebrated turning 56 earlier this month and each of the two artists narrates 28 stories, to come up with 56 portraits of the protagonists of their road trip. Both artists believe in the mystical relevance of numerology and discover patterns in mathematical behaviour that might affect events in their lives. This belief has deep roots in tradition. The divining of numbers through dreams, as in lotto number suggestions, is not as wacky as it sounds for those who bet regularly in the hope that the heavens above align to change their lives.

By using numerological addition for the number 56, one arrives at the number two (5+6 = 11; 1+1=2) which one can read as a reference to the two artists themselves. And the numerological game goes on.

The two artists are inviting the art-loving public to join them on Route 56 to meet their friends at the studio in Mqabba Square. Maybe you’ll be enticed to listen to their friends’ stories of doom, gloom and hope and be moved to take one of them back home with you, together with a document − a written account of their mournful story.

Route 56 is happening at Mallia-Farrell studio in Mqabba Square from tomorrow to Sunday, May 2.

Opening hours will be from 6pm to 9pm while, on Sunday, the exhibition will also be open between 10am and 1pm. Viewing will be strictly by appointment. One can log on to the Route 56 page at https://fb.me/e/PHAgxNIr. For more information about Farrell’s and Mallia’s art, log on to https://www.facebook.com/Etienne-Farrell-Art and https://www.facebook.com/Mark-Mallia-Art.