A collection of textile works, soon to go on display at the Malta Society of Arts, speaks of Maltese traditions and hope for the future. Esther Lafferty speaks with the artist STEFAN SPITERI on his two-year project.

This week, an intriguing series of large-scale textile works go on show in Valletta’s Palazzo de La Salle.

Through the Eye of the Needle, curated by Andrew Borg Wirth, is the culmination of a two-year project by artist Stefan Spiteri and these new artworks draw on ideas ranging from nature to the state of society, Maltese traditions and his hope for the future. It’s a heady mix.

“I was primarily inspired by the art of Venezuelan painter and textile artist Luchita Hurtado,” explains Spiteri.

The Solar Breath by Stefan Spiteri

“She created art her whole life but was only widely recognised for her work in 2016 when she was in her mid-nineties. Her practice included cutting painted canvases into strips and stitching them back together reconfigured. Some of the paintings included words and phrases that embedded like secret messages into the new works. I decided to take an approach similar to that of Hurtado using old works of my own.”

“I was also keen to create art with textiles and thread because, although sewing is generally associated with women and considered a domestic craft, it is also widely used in Malta for the creation of villages’ giant festa decorations which are first stitched and then painted. They’re such an important part of our cultural fabric.”

Spiteri first had to learn how to use a sewing machine. He describes the challenge of fitting his enormous pieces under the sew­ing machine and how moving them around under the tiny needle was almost like a dance. The result is a striking series of works all of which are composed of pieces of previous paintings combined with scraps of fabric and colourful thread. Each he has built up intuitively from many layers. 

These giant textile pieces appear bright and joyful.

With organic shapes that twist and turn, his works look like intriguing organic nature-scapes, perhaps windows into the depths of a giant forest, and Spiteri is keen that his art reconnects us with nature, reminds us of where we have come from and how far we have moved from the natural habitats in which we began. 

The title of the show is a phrase from the Bible, also found in the Qur’an, which suggests it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

“I chose it to remind us that the time we are living through now is far from Utopian,” explains Spiteri.

By acknowledging what is wrong, and then taking the time to fix the rifts in life and society, we can rebuild better

“With wars and the state of the environment, these works draw on a place of desperation and provide an idea of escape: the eye of the needle may be small, but it offers hope. I see the needle itself as a mending tool: artists, and other professionals, can each be a needle that plays a part healing the world stitch by stitch. 

Through the Eye of the Needle showcases a series of largescale textile works.

“By acknowledging what is wrong, and then taking the time to fix the rifts in life and society, we can rebuild better. I love the idea that in acknowledging pain, and embracing flaws and imperfections – as in Kintsugi [the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold] – you can create something even stronger and more beautiful.”

Displayed on wooden stands designed by Lyanne Mifsud to evoke a weaver’s loom, these giant textile pieces appear bright and joyful because they are stitched with kaleidoscopic colours, and jewel-coloured threads are overlaid with positive purpose on darker and more muted paint. 

Stand awhile, however, and you may feel drawn in further, from the macro to the microscopic. These fronds, roots and tendrils, which could equally be celestial or represent socie­tal connections, might also be nerves and vessels within our bodies or microscopic cellular structures, Stefan explains.

As abstract works, they are open to interpretation and evoke different responses in different viewers. 

Artist Stefan Spiteri alongside one of his works.

In a rather lovely twist, there’s an additional element to this show: Spiteri’s mother Speranza has contributed three pieces, one of which she created 50 years ago, aged 18, which Spiteri remembers seeing on the wall of their house every day.

Spiteri describes how he grew up in a household where sewing and creating with thread were staple activities. His Gozitan grandmother, a lacemaker; her mother, a weaver, whilst his grandfather was a fisherman making nets when he wasn’t on the water. Speranza, however, trained as a teacher.

“I look at that piece and wonder what might have happened if my mum had taken a different path and become a textile artist,” he muses.

“It’s therefore a reminder of lost opportunities, and that it is never too late! To accompany it, she is creating two new works – her first for 50 years – reminding us that art can both on the past and look to the future.”

Through the Eye of the Needle by Stefan Spiteri runs at Malta Society of Arts, Valletta from February 8-29.