Crossword puzzles have a chequered history. They first appeared in England at some point during the 19th century. Originally very elementary in nature and intended to be read alike both vertically and horizontally, they progressed from a presence in children’s puzzle books to serious game status in the US, where the puzzle intrigued and challenged adults to delve into their general knowledge and ability at deciphering words by solving the clues provided.

Adopting the crossword puzzle to be the representative image of an art collective perhaps goes some way into depicting the ethos of an exhibition that transcends thematic boundaries and mediums used. To some extent, the game can be regarded as an icon of pop culture that was even explored by Andy Warhol himself.

The title PROtaGOniesTEA is a play on compound words, from our two official languages, that phonetically mimic the Maltese word ‘protagonisti’, translated into English as ‘protagonists’. There is a marked playfulness component in the enterprise, further augmented by the artists who have reproduced themselves as caricatural elements amid the crossword template, while not abiding by predetermined stylistic considerations. The compound image of this idiosyncratic crossword lives up to its name, that of befuddlement and puzzlement.

This unorthodox imagery stimulates one’s interest to gather all the clues and fathom to decipher its meaning by taking the trip to visit the exhibition in Rabat.

The 14 artists, ranging from the well-established, the veteran and the up-and-coming, were asked to come up with nicknames that would somehow define them. As explained in the exhibition’s democratic mission statement: “In spite of diversities, different media and styles, everyone is a protagonist in their own right.”

Characters in search of an exhibition

Mark Mallia (nicknamed ‘Dick’) many times borders on the controversial in his art, his diatribes and declarations on Facebook and his general maverick attitude. One of his contributions to this exhibition, Imperium Penicus, a colourful phallus, is a thematic staple in his oeuvre; it exemplifies the tongue-in-cheek social comments and his penchant for parody. The controversial iconography goes much further than any superficial, facile eroticism that might be evoked. The nickname he chose for himself as the ‘dick’ of the situation ultimately demonstrates all of this.

Fabio Borg (nicknamed ‘Il-Kuċċlu’) and Kevin Sciberras (nicknamed ‘Il-Profs’) are established artists with a number of solo exhibitions under their belts.

Borg has embarked on a new direction in his career; his poetic interpretations of the Maltese landscape are comments on its ephemeral beauty that is under constant threat. The artist’s evolution towards a new dreamy and atmospheric style, the perspective that is shared with the viewer and the trees that almost vanish in a preternatural mist, or pollution, are the main components of a new distinct style that establishes Borg as a foremost landscape artist.

The compound image of this idiosyncratic crossword lives up to its name, that of befuddlement and puzzlement

Sciberras, a teacher by profession (hence the chosen nickname in all probability), layers light in a technique which bears parallels to that of Lyonel Feininger. Sciberras intentionally manipulates the purely representational and adds an alternative possibility by layering paint to erase memories and create new ones.

A feeling of intense loneliness permeates his paintings as humanity seems to have been exiled out of harm’s way. In this collective, the artist explores the theme of agoraphobia, the fear of public spaces. People who suffer from this condition often find for themselves a comfort zone by losing themselves in the self-imposed exile within the walls of one’s home.

Hot on the heels of the success of her latest exhibition titled Lustucru, Etienne Farrell (nicknamed ‘Red’) continues to investigate the world of lore, fables, myths and legends, searching for hidden meanings. Her sculpture I See Red explores the famous Charles Perrault fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Farrell suggests a reversal of roles in which monster becomes victim and the innocent, red-coated girl is exposed as a charlatan, indeed the villain in the story. The sculpture is Janus-faced, as the artist insists that perspective is key while attempting a Freudian interpretation to this traditional morality tale.

Nude as a theme

The nude is a common theme for most of the photographers participating in PROtaGOniesTEA. Photographer Clint Scerri Harkins’s (nicknamed ‘Tal-Inbid’) solo exhibition Her of last June explored the female form, specifically that of his partner. In Satya, his first solo which was on last year, he explored ‘the truth’ via a photographic exercise (satya can be loosely translated from Sanskrit as truth).

In his own words, the “models were shown in intimate moments, no details spared” to expose some sort of truth that the body at times conceals.

“Many times, I am described as a quiet person, yet most of the time I let photos speak what my mind could never utter through words,” photographer Andrew E Zarb (nicknamed ‘The Undertaker’) remarks.

His photograph titled The Vigorous finds rhythm in the repetition of elements. It is a ripple of body parts – fingers, hands, legs, breasts – which create a very interesting compositional narrative.

Keith Darmanin (nicknamed ‘The Storyteller’) is a freelance photographer who is regularly commissioned to document events like weddings and other special occasions. He creates stories out of salient episodes in the lives of common folk, as commissioned photographic essays of humanity, which,  therefore, defines him as a visual storyteller of the lives of common people.

Solitude is a deviation from his usual photographic narration of people in ceremonial contexts. This female nude is studied, shot in the artist’s studio under predetermined conditions. It tells a story of poignant female sadness. However, the artist feels hope is also portrayed in this work.

Other games

Intricacy is the name of the game for Peter Seychell (nicknamed ‘The Alchemist’). His veritable pictorial tours de force are complex mandala-like compositions that extol his virtues both in technique and composition. Coming from a pharmaceutical background, Seychell embarked on these exercises and created mythologies that hark back to the days of old. His piece It Does evokes a Tree of Knowledge/Tree of Life iconography found in illuminated manuscripts, those old texts that held the secrets to knowledge, be it alchemical or otherwise. Seychell remarks about this particular painting: “The topic itself is one I hold dear and one which is very current. It Does! (grow on trees)… the answer to much of our environmental problems, literally does. Yet, oblivious to what we know so well, we continue to plunder and fell trees to the ground.” The message is universal and very topical, especially in the global scenario of environmental degradation.

Despite his early interest in art, it was only as recent as 2018 that Mauro Pace Parascandalo (nicknamed ‘The Mentalist’) started experimenting in various media and found his grounding as an artist. Pace Parascandalo is currently working in clay and exploring its possibilities in sculptures and reliefs. His meeting with Mark Mallia, also in 2018, was a watershed moment towards his development of a personal style. His slender, Giacomettian sculptures, sometimes rough in texture, reflect on the human condition and the pain of existing.

Rebecca Ranieri (nicknamed ‘La Gatta’) is an Italian artist currently based in Malta who has studied art in various Italian art academies. Her studies at the Academy of Fine Art in Bologna, where she studied paper and photography conservation, directed her to choosing paper as her favoured medium. Her haunting representations of humanity, such as in Dissolved, are reminiscent of Italian artist’s Ernesto Treccani’s flowing and evanescent works, which have been defined as “a search for the soul of things rather than their consistency”.

Rosanna Ciliberti (nicknamed ‘L-Avukat tax-Xitan’) regards art as being cathartic as it makes her rationalise creatively the emotions of anxiety and fear and externalises them by representing them through abstraction. Her abstracted cityscape, The Vanishing City, perhaps draws on Italo Calvino’s literary masterpiece Invisible Cities and his affirmation that “arriving at each new city, the traveller finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places,” or, in Ciliberti’s words: “the wandering into an unknown destination, loving both the arrival and departure into another unknown city.”

The youngest protagonist, Voodoo Venom (nicknamed ‘The Vampire’), is a post-secondary art student who favours a digital mode of expression, anime being her favoured choice. Matthew, Margaret and May are orphans, bereft of all orientation as they don’t have a home or family to return to. The wide-open eyes are windows to a very vulnerable and lonely soul, entreating the viewer to partake in the narrative, one which tugs at the heart’s strings and exhorts one to relent and give in to the trio’s pleas at comprehension by taking them home.

Meanwhile, Sarah Vassallo Ciliberti (nicknamed ‘It-Tifla tal-Avukat tax-Xitan’), incidentally Rosanna Ciliberti’s daughter, and Sylvana Zarb (nicknamed ‘Medusa’), express themselves with the written word and add an alternative dimension to the experience of PROtaGOniesTEA, in a fusion of different art forms such as poetry, the book as an artwork in itself and photography.

The 14 self-portraits and nicknames of PROtaGOniesTEA elicit comparisons with a tarot deck. Coupled with the intricacies of the unorthodox crossword puzzle, one is challenged to decipher clues and divine connections in this exhibition ‘showcasing a fusion of artists’.

PROtaGOniesTEA, curated by Etienne Farrell and Mark Mallia, is hosted by the Voluntary Centre of Triq San Bartolomew, Rabat. It will run between Saturday and September 11. COVID-19 restrictions apply.