A new exhibition in Victoria’s Il-Haġar Museum, Lost Paradise by Henry Alamango and Galina Troizky, presents a breathtaking yet sobering view of the Maltese islands, recording the changes that have taken place in Alamango’s lifetime.

In subtle and evocative watercolours infused with gentle light and sun-kissed hues, the exhibition presents landscapes and views of the past alongside bustling collage work overlaid on acrylic and oil by Troizky which primarily point to today’s urban chaos.

Lost Paradise offers a poignant exploration of our world’s fragile beauty and the escalating perils it faces,” says Louis Laganà, associate professor of art at the University of Malta.

Labyrinth

“This exhibition brings together the evocative works of two remarkable artists whose diverse artistic styles and backgrounds unite to deliver a compelling narrative on ecological degradation and the destruction wrought by human interventions.”

The first piece in the show, Endless Building at nearly two metres tall, sets the tone. Despite its size, step close to absorb the detail and you’ll see mythological animal ‘hobos’ and a handful of homeless people sleeping under arches, which add a sense of foreboding.

Alongside, Labyrinth gathers golden stone against a turquoise Mediterranean, and Heritage packs together neolithic temples and ancient salt pans, the Knights of St John and a derelict galleria with traditional family rooms and ramshackle buildings, putting them together with cubic patterning like piled-up apartments.

Heritage

Trozky’s detailed collage work includes many sets of shelves packed with books, representing perhaps the density of population and the knowledge we have collectively accumulated over time.

On a further piece – Tower of Babel, which is compiled almost entirely from books – Troizky notes, inspired by the German quantum physicist Hans-Peter Durr, that “we collect data and, erroneously, label it as knowledge”. This is increasingly true in this era of ‘big data’. Are we losing sight of what’s important?

In her study of Gozo, explicitly a Dream, the letters scattered across a lush green landscape as if they are the wire frame for festa fireworks. With the Citadel as a backdrop, bright flowers and birds burst forth with Amazonian intensity. Is this the paradise we all long for?

Free Beach Ramla

“The disfigurement of the environment, and knocking the Planning Authority, is a popular pastime today, driven by nostalgia,” says Alamango, “but I’m more concerned by something more harmful, something even more fundamental than the physical environment we live in.

“If we don’t have familiar and healthy places where people can meet and sit together, for free, then we are replacing local networking with a phenomenon of anonymity; and if the community found in village squares and gatherings by the coast is what makes us Maltese, then we are losing a sense of ourselves and our trust in one another. People want a sense of security, to feel their homes are safe and that there’s a future for their children.”

Lost Paradise

“In the social dimension, paradise may be a tapestry of the sense of community, the personalities, extended families, social networks, and the cultural milieu that nurtured us.”

Among the art, visitors will find a powerful photographic image of Alamango’s mother in Paceville in 1975, less that 50 years ago, amid a sea of pink flowers from that stretches to the blue water beyond. It’s a far cry from the scenes of today.

There’s also moving video footage from 1951 in which you’ll see Alamango’s mother pushing a pram and Alamango himself playing on a quiet, low-rise Sliema waterfront where his father had a bookshop. Other clips transport you – via an old-fashioned ferry – to Mġarr and Xlendi, each a mere scattering of buildings. It’s enough to bring a tear to the eye.

Mġarr Waterfront

Despite the artists’ explicit concerns about a lost paradise, and the degradation of village life in recent years, this is not a dark or gloomy exhibition. The warmth of the sun, the spectacular colours of the sea, and beauty of the architecture in our villages shines through. There’s delight and appreciation in the paintings too, which range from heavenly timeless landscapes to charmingly cheeky characters at Nadur carnival. And keep your eyes peeled for the McDonalds and Apple logos!

“Writing his epic poem in 1674 [Paradise Lost, which inspired the title of the exhibition], John Milton wrote that ‘man’s danger is in himself and his power is also in him.’ It is man’s will that counts. He can make of his past a paradise lost and of his future a paradise regained,” says the museum’s curator Joseph Farrugia in the exhibition catalogue. “There is a paradise regained in [this exhibition].”

Mum Loved Paceville

And “Lost Paradise is more than an exhibition; it is a call to action,” adds Laganà.

“The works serve as both a warning and a source of inspiration... As visitors walk through the exhibition, they are invited to contemplate the delicate balance between nature and human development, and to consider the ways in which we might restore and preserve the paradise slipping through our fingers… there is still time to act.”

Lost Paradise runs at Il-Ħaġar – Heart of Gozo Museum until November 10.