Obama ‘yes we can’ artist brings climate warning to Malta

When American artist Antar Dayal’s phone rang in 2008, he had no way of knowing what was in store for him.

The caller was David Axelrod chief strategist to a senator that would go on to make history, Barack Obama.

“He said, ‘I have briefed Senator Obama about your work, and he wants to ask you something. Are you ready?’” recalled Dayal.

Dayal was asked by Obama to contribute an artistic work to his election campaign as part of the ‘Artists for Obama’ series, a collection of 10 limited-edition fine-art prints created or donated by artists to the campaign.

Dayal said he had been “incredibly honoured” that his work featured in Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign. Photo: Antoine Farrugia Lauri.

Dayal’s work, a lithograph depicting Obama set against a backdrop of red stripes from the American flag with the slogan “Yes, we can” – from which the work takes its name – was produced in a run of 5,000 numbered prints.

The artist later met Obama in person, describing him as having “incredible charisma” and being a “genuinely nice person”. He said he had been a supporter of Obama before the project.

How did it feel to see his work used in the campaign and know it had contributed to Obama’s US presidential election victory? 

“I felt incredibly honoured. There are just no words for that.”

Dayal was speaking to Times of Malta at Valletta’s Fort St Elmo, where for the past few months he has been exhibiting his mobile artwork, Last Ice Stand, as part of the Malta Biennale.

The artwork features a converted 40-year-old van Dayal said used to belong to an Italian olive farmer in Arezzo, that the artist drove from Italy to Malta before converting it ready for exhibition.

He said it had proven impossible to locate premises in Malta to convert the van, however, eventually having to carry out the work at his biennale pavillion. “I tried for three months, and kept hearing, ‘no way’ ... This is the Biennale; they should support artists”.

This is not the first biennale that Dayal has participated in, having also exhibited at London’s in 2021, where his work also focused on environmental themes.

Asked how the Malta Biennale measured up to London’s, he emphasised that the UK version had been considerably smaller, taking place in just one building.

“This is much broader, it's much bigger ... it involves the whole country, including even Gozo,” he said. “And there's a big difference between creating a work on location and just applying a piece of art somewhere”.

‘They have to discover the beauty of ice’

Converted to resemble an old-fashioned ice cream van, Dayal’s work displays pictures of snow-capped mountains and blue ice popsicles – the latter of which he also created models of.

“I wanted something that could be used as a gallery to show these artworks,” he said of the van, explaining that its chassis had been treated with a type of UV-reactive resin to create the impression of it being frozen over.

The popsicles prompt viewers to reflect on their impact on the environment, as humanity continues to extract resources, produce goods and generate carbon emissions.

“I think it’s important to remind people that we are facing a climate crisis. In Malta – like in California – there is no ice. For people living in those places, it’s very abstract, so you have to bring it to them ... They have to discover the beauty of ice.”

The artist’s popsicles prompt viewers to reflect on their impact on the environment, as humanity continues to extract resources, produce goods and generate carbon emissions. Photo: Antoine Farrugia Lauri.

The artist’s fascination with ice was inspired by several trips to the polar regions, including the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, which he described as having ice formations that look like jewellery.

And his conviction of the existential threat posed by climate change is given urgency by his concerns for his daughter: “My generation has created these problems, and her generation will have to fix them, if they can, or just deal with the outcome”.

“Nobody wants to take responsibility in this world for anything – for parking here [in Malta], or for causing climate change. This is very childish,” he said.

Life’s work destroyed

The impacts of climate change were brought home to Dayal in terrifying reality when his home in the Santa Barbara hills was burned down by a wildfire, destroying most of his life’s work.

Dayal described the five-storey-high blaze rapidly approaching his home and being told he had exactly 16 minutes to save important belongings and evacuate the area.

Despite feeling “paralysed” at first, the artist managed to save his laptop, two cats – and the scratchboard original of the Obama work used to create the lithograph copies.

He was unable to save anything else, however; he recalled a fire marshal shouting, “If you don’t get out now, you’re a dead man” as his home filled with smoke.

But the fire, which saw his life’s work go up in flames, has only served to inspire him: “Ice is the antidote of the fire”.