We Started a Fire, with works by Kane Calì, is a commentary about contemporary attitudes towards global politics, the climate crisis and other urgencies defining our current time. Curator ANDREW BORG WIRTH speaks with Lara Zammit about the exhibition, viewable by appointment at the Malta School of Art in Valletta

Artist Kane Calì’s latest solo show We Started a Fire at the Malta School of Art includes a series of sculptures in conversation with the historical casts housed within the school.

“The works that Kane is showcasing embody our current moment,” says Andrew Borg Wirth, who is curating the exhibition. “They showcase confusion, liminality and are frozen at a time of great crisis.”

When juxtaposed against the school’s historical plaster casts, Calì’s works highlight a greater sense of urgency in contrast to the casts’ seeming serenity.

Fake Break (detail)

“While Calì’s works are a glitch in the system, the casts at the School of Art are serene. They have, for generations, provided careful guidance to students who have pursued their academic training in art.

“Their sculptural juxtaposition holds considerable value. They come together to speak not only of the political situations we are in, but also of the trajectory that the art object is on.

The Malta School of Art in Valletta

“In this show, the classical bust takes on a new agency as the tension of fracture, breaking and catastrophe contrasts with its composure and stability,” says the curator.

The Malta School of Art was founded in the early 20th century at 106, Old Bakery Street, Valletta. Since its establishment, it exerted a major influence in the progress and artistic research of visual arts in Malta and acted as one of the prime sources of artistic education, offering formal training and scholarships to artists to further their education abroad.

Fake Break 3

Among the most renowned artists who had their formal education at the school are Antoine Camilleri, Victor Diacono, Harry Alden, Vincent Apap, Willie Apap, Esprit Barthet, Anton Inglott and Carmelo Mangion.

Calì has explored various media in his artistic career, most notably ceramics, glass and 3D printing. He says that, while allowing his tools to identify and capture content within both the landscape of the virtual and that of the real, his artistic practice mirrors humanity’s desire for advancement, while remaining firmly grounded in tangible, everyday surroundings. Furthermore, his artistic development reflects a personal interest in critical theory and contemporary political discourse.

The works in this solo show present a departure from the artist’s previous work, where the artist investigates new materials and establishes a new aesthetic based on the subject matter of his choice.

Kane Calì

“We Started a Fire proposes work which is fragmented beyond any point previously seen in Calì’s repertoire,” explains Borg Wirth.

“He works with tension to create a cataclysmic situation. The works seem to be falling − crashing to the ground, slipping into pieces or laying after a serious break. They are expressed in materials which echo the project’s title; elements that rekindle man’s first experiences with fire. 

“While the artist has worked extensively in colour and with more industrial materials, this show investigates nature-derived materials and their machined, or human-altered equivalents.”

Fake Break 4

The curator went on to state that We Started a Fire is a reminder of the large implication of small actions, saying that the title alludes to how the discovery of fire by man has led us all the way to today’s reality, as we race towards the fires of our apocalypse.

“The works are mindful of the current moment. They speak of the agency of man, but also the inevitability of meta-narratives. Kane seems to be in two minds between having a go at changing things and succumbing to a sense of ineffectiveness in the face of large, global struggles, and general apathy or resistance to messages of warning.”

Transitivity

The work of Calì therefore positions us at the crossroads between several forces and realities ­− the natural and man-made; the whole and the fragment; the hopeful and the dystopian; our collective past and an unknown future; intention and chance; the digital and the tactile; the pursuit of beauty and the onset of disaster.

We Started a Fire with works by Kane Calì and curated by Andrew Borg Wirth is showing at the Malta School of Art in Old Bakery Street, Valletta, from September 1-14. Viewing is strictly by appointment on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am-1pm and 6pm to 8pm, September 1, 7, 8, and 14 from 10am to 12pm. Bookings can be made by contacting kanecali@gmail.com.