Heart of Matter, the title of Victor Agius’s current exhibition at Mqabba’s Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq, finds the artist further exploring the possibilities of clay, soil, roots and stalks, the building blocks of his artistic expression. There is no colourful exuberance that one finds in the ceramics of Gabriel Caruana, Malta’s 20^th century pioneer of the medium. Agius’s (b. 1982) ceramic palette is subdued, lacking most chromatic embellishment.

The pieces emit a natural but sombre aura, speaking a language that is primitive and raw. The geology, the ecology, the archaeology, and the prehistory of his island home, Gozo, is integrated into these compositions that reach out to something that is essential and ritualistic. The pieces are like glyphs, an archaic vernacular which can be glimpsed but not totally deciphered.

Mnajdra

Agius has often used performance as an immersive tool, thereby breathing life into the work itself and engaging the members of the public as performing artists in their own right.

The Gozitan artist is well-known for his multidisciplinary approach, integrating sculpture, painting, relief and happenings into his oeuvre. The vicinity of the Megalithic temples of Ġgantija to his studio, the town of Xagħra being his birthplace, has obviously been of major inspiration in his artistic development.

The 2019 official inauguration of his Ħaġarna public sculpture, a few metres away from Ġgantija, reflected this inclusive approach. Earthiness and origins through the geology and the archaeology of Gozo are integrated into his raw and intimate studio work, a love affair in the moulding of primitive and parched earth, rocks, roots and branches into new forms.

Mnajdra

This connection is not just restricted to the Gozitan Unesco World Heritage Site – his pieces Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra refer to the Megalithic temples in Malta while Bur Meghez Mqabba refers to a cave in Mqabba that has evidence of a neolithic settlement.

Agius as a shaman

Quoting from the exhibition’s mission statement: “The core of Agius’s practice can be experienced through his shamanic gestures in which the primordial matter of terrarossa, ceramics, pigments, cement and clay focus on how man uses nature and materials around him to practise his rituals to satisfy his material and spiritual needs while exposing his fragile existence.”

The origin of shamanism may go back to the hunter-gatherer cultures, persisting in societies that centred around farming and herding. The Megalithic temples were sites of worship, of ritualistic activity and of community. A shaman, or a high priest or priestess, was probably the fountainhead of knowledge and provided the prehistoric community with advice. judgement and revelation.

Ġgantija

It is believed that shamans communicated with the otherworld and conversed with spirits. They were probably also herbalists, very connected with the world around them and with the fruit of Mother Earth. Thus, the sick were entrusted to them to be healed and, if unsuccessful in this endeavour, to accompany their souls to the afterlife. Shamanism deals with the well-being of both nature and human nature, and how they relate to each other. There is evidence that red ochre was widely used in prehistoric temples and burial sites including the Xagħra Stone Circle both as decoration of the spaces and during burial rituals.

Agius ‘mediumistic’ artistic practice differs from that of Canadian Berlin-based artist Jeremy Shaw (b. 1977) whose oeuvre investigates altered drug-induced states besides belief systems, neuroscience and subculture. The Canadian artist’s oeuvre is a collage of various art forms that represent the multi-layered almost documentary approach of his. His found objects originate from the most disparate sources such as footage from the 1960’s and 1970’s subcultures as well as science fiction literature, besides music.

Genesis

The Gozitan artist shamanism relates to communicating with our island’s prehistoric legacy, its shrines, its purported rituals while integrating elements such as clay, roots and stalks, probably used by shamans during their prehistoric performances and rites. The vessels, structures and compositions are like agglomerations suggested by intercourse on many levels, also pertaining to the endemic nature of the material surrounding his studio.

Some of his organic sculptures, rough and earthy, rather like eruptions of magma from a pregnant Mother Earth, are evocations of the early ceramic work of Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana who once remarked: “I do not want to make a painting; I want to open up space, create a new dimension, tie in the cosmos.”

These words somehow relate to Agius’s general output as time, the fourth dimension, and its relentless passage, factor in deeply. Fontana was referring to his canvas slashes and the punctured holes in which he tried to overcome the restrictions of the two-dimensional property of traditional painting and reach for what lies beyond, while also referring to Einstein’s groundbreaking theories regarding spacetime.

Victor Agius. Photo: Daniel Cilia

Agius attempts to transcend time as a limiting factor by transforming base matter, like an alchemist, into an artistic language connecting eras which the art-loving public is invited to experience at Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq in Mqabba.

Heart of Matter, hosted by Mqabba’s Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq and curated by Melanie Erixon for Art Sweven, is on until April 9. Visit the venue’s Facebook page for opening hours and more information.