Many foreign contemporary artists who visit Malta each year are fascinated by the beauty and the mystery of our prehistoric temples and the images of the statues and statuettes of the Mother Goddess. Some of these artists look back into the past and use ancient imagery and symbols to connect the visual matter of art directly to the inner life of people. It seems that there is a return to the use of images of the Goddess, and most artists use them to reclaim the iconography of the sacred female.
Raphael Labro, a French artist who discovered by accident the island of Gozo, is currently working on a project and is holding an exhibition of his works at the Sinclair Stevenson Gallery in Gozo. Mr Labro's work is about reclaiming the lost ancient ideologies. It is a primitivistic appeal to nature and an exploration of the primal conditions of humankind.
Born in the south of France in 1956, Mr Labro was interested in art at a very early age. He was also influenced by his mother who was a designer in the fashion industry and he started his formal art education at the age of 17 at the School of Art in Nice. Later he took up the career of a professional photographer and worked for renowned personalities like Paloma Picasso, Roger Planchon and Patrice Chéreau. He established himself as a fashion photographer and collaborated with famous designers like Kenzo, Jean-Paul Gaultier and other big names, travelling to Paris, London, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney.
Although Mr Labro's reputation is more as a professional photographer, today he has a greater interest in using the traditional medium of painting. Occasionally he produces digital artworks and even sculptures in clay, metal and wood. He started experimenting with various themes around 10 years ago focusing mostly on the image of the female as a metaphor of life. He uses universal symbols with a deep concern for our planet earth.
In this collection of paintings called Rebirth, Mr Labro created his goddesses as strange creatures often depicted in a bulbous form with orange-brown hues and fluorescent green faces. For example the figures in the work Twin Goddesses are further transformed in another work called Goddess in May, depicting the dual force of the goddess. The artist uses colours as symbols. The green colour on the face of the figures represents hope, hope that someday the earth will resume its natural course of evolution without the destructive interventions by humans. The golden line behind the figures represents the "sacred geometry" which is linked to the essential elements of the education of the soul. In the background one can also see the deep blue sky and the moon. It is the "Sabian" moon which characterises the emotional aspect of life as explained in astrology. Through these mythological motifs Mr Labro tries to convey his message of egalitarian peace and an environmentally conscious attitude towards the earth.
The archetypal symbol of the anima and animus emerge in two other canvases called Gemini III and IV. Mr Labro represents two androgynous figures attached to each other forming symbolically unification beyond form and duality. I see it also as the concept which expresses the essential balance between the male and the female. The anima and animus: The integrator of these principles which gives energy to bring forth consciousness on earth.
Another work which symbolically represents the theme of the art exhibition Rebirth is Maia Maiestas. The painting shows the body of the female as a landscape. This is not the first time that artists used the body as landscape. Artists like Freda Kahlo, Diego Rivera and others presented the female nude as the archetypal mother figure and they alluded to the fertility goddess as mother earth. Even surrealist artists personified the landscape as a woman. Across the body-landscape of the female figure is visible; it is in the form of a foetus and signifies birth. It is the "rebirth" of the earth; she is the goddess of fertility and regeneration in whose womb cycles death and rebirth; she is the most archaic image of all time. This painting is a metaphor about life and death.
Perhaps one of the most interesting works in this exhibition by Mr Labro, is a portrait symbolically representing Mother Earth, known as Gaia or Tellus in Roman mythology. This fictional representation of the face of mother earth has the characteristics of the "primitive" expressed with spontaneous vibrant colours and an intense dramatic palette. Like the doyen of Art Brut Jean Dubuffet, the artist employed a childlike technique to transmit the primitive qualities, and the crude renderings of form.
I believe that Mr Labro is recreating the "goddess" imagery because of his great concern for the Earth and the human being. We should take heed of his concern. His art is also an expression of a new Earth-based spirituality invoking the full acceptance of the archetypal female in its positive and negative powers.
The exhibition is also part of two projects for fundraising: Friends of the Sick and Eldery in Gozo and Gozo Forestis Project to plant trees with Gozitan school children, and holiday-making children in green areas.
•Rebirth runs at the Sinclair Stevenson Gallery until September 4.
Raphael Labro, a French artist who discovered by accident the island of Gozo, is currently working on a project and is holding an exhibition of his works at the Sinclair Stevenson Gallery in Gozo. Mr Labro's work is about reclaiming the lost ancient ideologies. It is a primitivistic appeal to nature and an exploration of the primal conditions of humankind.
Born in the south of France in 1956, Mr Labro was interested in art at a very early age. He was also influenced by his mother who was a designer in the fashion industry and he started his formal art education at the age of 17 at the School of Art in Nice. Later he took up the career of a professional photographer and worked for renowned personalities like Paloma Picasso, Roger Planchon and Patrice Chéreau. He established himself as a fashion photographer and collaborated with famous designers like Kenzo, Jean-Paul Gaultier and other big names, travelling to Paris, London, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney.
Although Mr Labro's reputation is more as a professional photographer, today he has a greater interest in using the traditional medium of painting. Occasionally he produces digital artworks and even sculptures in clay, metal and wood. He started experimenting with various themes around 10 years ago focusing mostly on the image of the female as a metaphor of life. He uses universal symbols with a deep concern for our planet earth.
In this collection of paintings called Rebirth, Mr Labro created his goddesses as strange creatures often depicted in a bulbous form with orange-brown hues and fluorescent green faces. For example the figures in the work Twin Goddesses are further transformed in another work called Goddess in May, depicting the dual force of the goddess. The artist uses colours as symbols. The green colour on the face of the figures represents hope, hope that someday the earth will resume its natural course of evolution without the destructive interventions by humans. The golden line behind the figures represents the "sacred geometry" which is linked to the essential elements of the education of the soul. In the background one can also see the deep blue sky and the moon. It is the "Sabian" moon which characterises the emotional aspect of life as explained in astrology. Through these mythological motifs Mr Labro tries to convey his message of egalitarian peace and an environmentally conscious attitude towards the earth.
The archetypal symbol of the anima and animus emerge in two other canvases called Gemini III and IV. Mr Labro represents two androgynous figures attached to each other forming symbolically unification beyond form and duality. I see it also as the concept which expresses the essential balance between the male and the female. The anima and animus: The integrator of these principles which gives energy to bring forth consciousness on earth.
Another work which symbolically represents the theme of the art exhibition Rebirth is Maia Maiestas. The painting shows the body of the female as a landscape. This is not the first time that artists used the body as landscape. Artists like Freda Kahlo, Diego Rivera and others presented the female nude as the archetypal mother figure and they alluded to the fertility goddess as mother earth. Even surrealist artists personified the landscape as a woman. Across the body-landscape of the female figure is visible; it is in the form of a foetus and signifies birth. It is the "rebirth" of the earth; she is the goddess of fertility and regeneration in whose womb cycles death and rebirth; she is the most archaic image of all time. This painting is a metaphor about life and death.
Perhaps one of the most interesting works in this exhibition by Mr Labro, is a portrait symbolically representing Mother Earth, known as Gaia or Tellus in Roman mythology. This fictional representation of the face of mother earth has the characteristics of the "primitive" expressed with spontaneous vibrant colours and an intense dramatic palette. Like the doyen of Art Brut Jean Dubuffet, the artist employed a childlike technique to transmit the primitive qualities, and the crude renderings of form.
I believe that Mr Labro is recreating the "goddess" imagery because of his great concern for the Earth and the human being. We should take heed of his concern. His art is also an expression of a new Earth-based spirituality invoking the full acceptance of the archetypal female in its positive and negative powers.
The exhibition is also part of two projects for fundraising: Friends of the Sick and Eldery in Gozo and Gozo Forestis Project to plant trees with Gozitan school children, and holiday-making children in green areas.
•Rebirth runs at the Sinclair Stevenson Gallery until September 4.