The late French conceptual artist Christian Boltanski once said: “Art-making is not about telling the truth but making the truth felt”. Gozitan artist Mario Agius attempts to investigate this concept by embracing traditional sculptural methods and by using conventional materials such as wood and limestone. He chips away at the abstract tree branch or block of stone, trying to ease out shape and volume. Thus, he incarnates his abstract thought process through figuration. He searches for some truth, relative though it might be, as, under the sun, there is nothing that is absolutely truthful.

The choice of Il-Ħajja (The Life) as the title of his current exhibition ‒ the use of the definite article being restrictively suggestive ‒ is indicative of an artist who is in tune with himself, his environment and life as it happens. For inspiration, he draws on the biblical, the spiritual and on the redeeming factors of humankind. In these faithless times of conflict, Agius sculpts these prayers, these peace offerings that make one reflect.

Agius, who first studied under the late Mgr Michelangelo Apap, furthered his studies with the late Anton Agius and the late Harry Alden.

He then continued his studies in Cheltenham, England, under British sculptor Ian Norbury, who was instrumental in broadening the Gozitan sculptor’s versatility. Enrst Barlach, the German Expressionist sculptor, was one of the main inspirations for the British artist and this was bound to influence the student Agius as well.

Everyday life in sculpture

L-Imħabba sa l-Aħħar (Love till the End) is a poignant representation of conjugal love. Although Barlach (1870-1938) can be regarded as an influence on Agius, the Gozitan artist has not entrenched expressionist primitive angst into the narrative. A different kind of pain, physical pain, troubles man and wife; however, there is resigned harmony in the comfort of companionship, in the knowledge of coming through whatever life decides to throw, notwithstanding sickness and old age.

Unconditional love is in the act of walking together, while serving as crutches to each other. The rurality of their clothes could indicate life in some Gozitan village – one can still come across these pockets of tradition that has not yet been overwhelmed by progress.

Mistrieħ (Rest) is a totemic study of paternal love, the young boy carried on the shoulders of his father, who stands steadfast but rather tired under the weight of his son. The brunt of his age bears down on him as he tries to catch his breath before proceeding in their itinerary.

He incarnates his abstract thought process through figuration

The young boy seems to look ahead towards adventures, not caring too much about the pitfalls that could cause his father to falter and fall. He urges his father to keep moving on, while holding on to his head. The title probably refers to the hesitant moment when the man needs a moment of recalibration and rest, even though he would not want to dampen his son’s exuberance.

Saints and other biblical characters

The sculpture of St Francis, titled San Franġisk, is a celebration of moral rectitude and humility. The friar, founder of the Order of Friars Minor, denounced his family’s riches in favour of an ascetic life dedicated to deep spirituality and poverty. Agius captures the resigned humility and the forbearance of the patron saint of animals and of nature. The two birds, maybe doves, represent the God’s creation, delivering a message that the saint and his two avian companions belong to an integrated harmonious whole.

The totemic composition symbolises the strong bond between saint and God’s creation, and that universal harmony can only be achieved when Man is one with his natural environment. Humanity, in these past decades, has rode roughshod on it, desecrating and exploiting God’s creation in the most despicable of ways. The artist, through this sculpture, also reflects on Pope Francis’s visit to our islands some weeks ago and his message in favour of the world’s and indeed our own country’s natural heritage.

St Paul is purported to have introduced Christianity to our archipelago. Agius’s sculpture, San Pawl, started out life as a lump of weathered Globigerina limestone, an objet trouvé, retrieved by the artist from a field in Gozo. Natural erosion had sculpted it into curls and whirls, somewhat indicating a path for the chisel to follow as the artist sculpted the face and integrated the weathering as a curly full beard and unruly hair.

The Melchiorre Cafà masterpiece of St Paul, one of our country’s foremost artistic treasures, also a much-revered processional statue, shares the same stern gaze and wrinkled forehead. This collaboration of art and erosion adds another iconographical layer and San Pawl blurs the lines between art and archaeology as one is at odds to determine if this is indeed a work of contemporary art or else an artefact extracted from an archaeological site. The natural erosion, the patina of centuries, adds to the timeless dignity of the piece.

Eva (Eve) is a study in shame and humiliation. Agius latches on to the Genesis episode of the Old Testament banishment from the Garden of Eden, as a punishment for tasting the forbidden fruit which made them lose their innocence as their eyes were opened to knowledge and sin.

The penitent and bashful Eve, consumed by her solitude, which is starker as Agius has portrayed her without her companion Adam, is rooted to the ground, threatening to engulf her into a pillar of wood. Enslaved through the sin that she had just committed, this is reminiscent to the fate that befell Lot’s wife, who was transformed into a pillar of salt for transgressing another divine command, as narrated in the same first book of the Pentateuch.

Il-Ħajja demonstrates once again Mario Agius’s consummate skill and dexterity in the traditional sculptural medium, breathing life into inanimate tree trunks and blocks of stone. The title for this solo exhibition has been eloquently chosen for its multi-layered significance.

Il-Ħajja, curated by Elyse Tonna and hosted by the Malta Society of Arts, Palazzo de la Salle, Republic Street, Valletta, is open until May 19. Opening hours are as follows: Mondays to Fridays: 8am to 7pm, Saturdays: 9am to 1.30pm, Sundays and public holidays: closed. One can meet the artist on May 14 between 10am and 1.30pm.