The sculptor of a fantasy world

‘Memories in Clay’ is a collection of recent works by Joseph Casha.

Unfortunately, it is a posthumous exhibition for Casha sadly passed away before its inauguration. How cruel is fate, that it did not give him the opportunity to see and take pride in the display of his late works.

Casha (1939-2011) was one of our finest sculptors and ceramists. His death on June 24 was another irreparable loss for art in Malta. This was a sad year that saw the passing away of some of our leading artists.

Only last week I commemorated the death of George Fenech. Other artists we have lost include Julie Apap and Neville Ferry, who were kindred spirits with Casha. It was touching that the three artists were remembered in the first edition of the Malta Ceramics Festival held in Attard last weekend.

Casha started his artistic training under George Borg. He was enrolled in the Malta Government School of Art between 1959 and 1961, and on completion of the course, proceeded to further his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome (1961-4).

During his three-year stay at the academy, he also frequented the Istituto Statale d’Arte (1961-2) and the Scuola delle Arti Ornamentali (1963-4).

Ever eager to widen his artistic horizons, he followed his Roman stint with a year at the Brighton College of Arts and Crafts (1964-5) where he enrolled in the art teachers’ course.

For those unfamiliar with Casha’s work, he is responsible for the Pope John Paul II monument in Attard. He also contributed to local sacred art by designing stained glass windows and tabernacles.

Also to his credit are designs for postage stamps and Malta Trade Fair posters. His greatest artistic achievements are nonetheless his sculptures and ceramics. It is on these that his fame will endure.

His sculptures are executed in various media, ranging from plaster to limestone, and from wood to marble. The current exhibition has many miniature terracotta sculptures that stand out for their imaginative compositions.

One often sees the familiar juxtaposed with the unfamiliar: a building with stairs, towers and what seems to be a dome but no other recognisable forms; a warping, steep hill with a building on top of it, or two embracing elongated forms with no obvious human characteristics.

These mini sculptures could very well be inhabited by some kind of creature, unknown to us, yet very clear in Casha’s fertile imagination.

Also in terracotta, but not in miniature, is Cathedral, a striking 2007, with its skeletal structure possessing the recognisable flying buttress, but little much else of the familiar, or rather, worldly.

Another of the more remarkable sculptures is the tapering 1997 terracotta Folly.

Fantastical is one apt word to describe these miniature terracottas.

But this trait is not relegated solely to his sculptures. This exhibition is also revealing for the collage works that are accentuated by pen and wash. These collages represent the same fertile and peculiar imagination of the sculptures. Fantasy View VII is truly remarkable.

Casha’s memory lives on in his works. He has forged a name for himself in the history of Malta’s modern and contemporary art.

‘Memories in Clay” is open at San Anton Palace, Attard, until next Sunday. Many of the works are on sale and part of the proceeds will go to the Community Chest Fund.