The artworks in Reconstructed Landscapes by emerging artist Thea Vella aim to raise awareness on our surroundings. She speaks with Lara Zammit on her works’ conceptual underpinnings. 

LZ: Reconstruction implies an original state of fragmentation, which is a quality inherent to Maltese landscapes in general. Nature, however, is not composed of pieces. For there to be a landscape, there must be a unity and a wholeness. What is the aim of reconstruction in your exhibition? Are you trying to retrieve a sense of wholeness within the landscape by reconfigure the fragments or are the fragments your main focus?

TV: When recalling differing Maltese landscapes, my memo­ry and imagination fragment and shift to form new interpretations of particular places. The aim of reconstruction is to recreate these familiar surroundings in line with the new perspective formed in my mind’s eye.

Rather than extracting details and lines in these artworks, I abstracted and focused on shapes, tones and recreating textures. This approach enhanced my process, whereby I wanted to immerse myself in the inconsistent patchwork I see, and the textures and tones that play part of this scenery.

LZ: Can you elaborate on your use of texture, colour and tone in your artworks? 

TV: Texture has always been a form of medium that has pushed me to explore more.

In these works, I challenged myself to experiment with material that was found, whether being recycled works or even pieces of paper found around the house.

Devolving this medium allowed me to recreate tones, shades and textures of the scenery that left a certain impact to my memory. They embody the essence of the landscape itself.

I hope people will feel encouraged to take a moment to be more mindful of what surrounds them

LZ: The term ‘landscape’ denotes both an object of art and its representation in which the artistic process and the object mutually constitute one another. Can you speak about the process of creating your artworks and your interaction with the surroundings which inspired them? 

TV: These past two years have given me the opportunity to appreciate and acknowledge my surroundings in new ways. I initially experi­mented with different textures on a small scale. Gaining confidence, I moved out of that safe, confined space and began engaging more with the landscape itself.

I found myself dedicating time to discover these landscapes, becoming ever more aware of my surrounding scenery. This practice was not only conducive to my creative process but resulted in personal growth and understanding.

Through these images, I hope people will feel encouraged to take a moment to be more mindful of what surrounds them, push themselves to reimagine the landscape they live in, and perhaps even reconstruct their own interpretation of the landscape.

Reconstructed Landscapes is running at Marie Gallery5, Mosta, till November 5.