MUŻA, Malta’s National Community Art Museum in Valletta, is currently hosting Barnaby Barford’s Topia, an exhibition featuring images of 1,000 local shop fronts rendered on bone-china boxes.

Barford visited towns and villages all over Malta and Gozo by bicycle, taking over 11,000 photographs. He then took the chosen images through a process of photoshopping and standardising before he turned them into little blocks, each one with an image of the shops.

He assembled these blocks precariously atop rubble walls, seemingly ready to fall but somehow still holding together. Going full circle, Heritage Malta put the “shops” up for sale, with proceeds supporting its community and contemporary art projects.

I met Barford to discuss his work a few weeks ago. A wholly unassuming person, he has been represented by the David Gill Gallery since 2004, and has exhibited internationally with major solo shows across Europe and the US. His work forms part of many public and private collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas, and the National Libraries of France and the Netherlands.

I quickly realised that Barford’s fascination with the shops went far beyond the aesthetic (indeed many of the shop fronts and their surroundings offer little aesthetic value by normal expectations), but spanned the economic, the social, the environmental and the broader well-being aspects in the places he visited.

Barford’s fascination with the shops went far beyond the aesthetic… but spanned the economic, the social, the environmental and the broader well-being aspects

Observing the rapid change Malta was undergoing, the artist wanted to encourage a conversation. I assured him that the conversation was topical, and we agreed that it would be nice to have an opportunity to discuss the diverse experiences and well-being of the retailer, the consumer, the commuter and society at large, and how small shops contribute to this. We invited Friends of the Earth Malta (Martina Galea), the Malta Anti Poverty Forum (Stephania Dimech Sant) and the Chamber of SMEs (Joan Haber), for a talk and curatorial walk at MUŻA. 

Together, we discussed how the Maltese economy had journeyed from a closed economy to an open economy. It had changed from one where the protection of local industry was paramount to one which bustles with imports and exports.

Many of the little shops which Barnaby photographed had experienced a time when a handful of local products and some imports would be distributed loosely along shelves. Now, millions of products compete for shelf-space.

Up to a few decades ago, a grocer may have been responsible to ration limited goods. A grocer now offers the services of a curator, pre-choosing the items for customers and saving us the stress that the hyper-choice at large supermarkets can cause. 

This process of choosing the right products in the retail outlet is still evolving rapidly as Maltese society changes and becomes more and more multicultural (witness the offer in Ħamrun, for instance). But it already reflects the diverse incomes in different locations.

We questioned whether all segments of society are being served by the retail offer − the poorest, the elderly who cannot drive to commercial centres, the young learning to be independent. If the offer becomes ever more up-market, globalised, branded and standard, will everyone’s needs be met? 

We also discussed how small shops offer more than trade − they offer community space. A place where small talk and banter can take place as you wait to be served. The owners of the retail outlet are a glue that helps to hold the neighbourhood together. These seemingly inane moments contribute to social interaction in turn known to be one of the key determinants of happiness and life satisfaction.

We questioned whether high employee turnover risks suppressing this unpaid yet valuable service of the friendly, familiar face of the owner (“and sons”).  Do the transient employees interact with the community? In turn, does the community welcome the migrant employee?

Finally, we reflected on how Barnaby had cycled to access these shops, noting that cycling allows a different experience for the commuter − an experience which allows you to get to places reasonably fast (often faster than the car) but also to enjoy the sensory stimuli of the different environments, to stop and talk, to take whimsical detours into different retails outlets.

We remarked what had not appeared in any of the photographs: Barford had photoshopped them out. Reducing the danger, the pollution, the noise and sheer clutter of cars renders the shops visible and the spaces more accessible.

What can be done to reduce some cars from some spaces at some times? How served are people who cannot drive to shopping malls? How can we make space for pedestrians and cyclo-commuters to breathe life (without pollution) into small urban centres?  

Barford titled the exhibition Topia (from greek ‘topus’, meaning place). But he provoked a broader discussion about society, the environment, the economy and our well-being − a discussion about where Malta’s heading, somewhere between dystopia and utopia.

Marie Briguglio is the principal investigator of the Wellbeing INDEX project, a collaboration of the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society and the University of Malta.