On my way down to the beach, near the traffic lights there’s a giant painting of a man’s head topped by a huge lampuka. It’s been there for a couple of years – having been painted as part of the Sliema Street Art Festival. I can’t help smiling when I see it – a cheerful pop of colour and creativity concealing a small part of the ugliness of the seemingly never-ending construction works on site.
A few metres away on the promenade, the telephone booths that are usually used as urinals now sport bright makeovers. There’s an intriguing three-dimensional chalk drawing of George Orwell on the floor. Further down on the walls beneath the promenade – which use to be bland and concrete-coloured blotched with rising damp and graffiti – there are now multi-coloured scenes which are both witty and decorative.
As with the case of the man-fish painting, these were all created during the Sliema Street Art Festival. Some are temporary installations and will be washed away by the elements, while others will be more permanent.
Personally I hope they remain in evidence for a very long time. Because they offer some respite from the overwhelming tattiness and blandness that makes for much of our surroundings. I can’t take the legion of armchair critics who took to moaning about how these paintings are not art in the true sense of the word, how naive and infantile they are and how they’re a short step away from vandalism and total anarchy.
Sometimes I think these critics would prefer all our examples of public art to be restricted to likenesses of politicians gazing into the distance – or maybe some horrifically clichéd mish-mash of national symbols.
Granted – not all street art is Banksy standard, but much of it is original and witty. And that can’t be a bad thing, can it?
I don’t want to wade into the whole ‘high art versus popular art’ debate, but before coming across all sniffy about street art, its detractors should stop to consider how accessible it is – people may not be able to view Caravaggios and Rembrandts every day but a painting of a big baby and a tiny whale may be that little interlude of art in an otherwise grey day.
Granted – not all street art is Banksy standard, but much of it is original and witty. And that can’t be a bad thing, can it?
• A photograph published in the papers recently shows President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca at a charity dinner organised by the Malta Developers Association at Montekristo Estates.
Walking down the aisle behind her was the MDA president Sandro Chetcuti reaching out regally to the crème de la crème of Malta’s construction industry. If possible, he was feeling more presidential than the actual President.
Montekristo Estates is – as everyone knows – the place where the rule of law does not apply. The entire estate is beset with several illegalities, a zoo which the Mepa CEO has admitted is illegal and a multitude of planning infringements. It seems that in regard to this development Mepa is as impotent as Hugh Hefner without Viagra.
When the illegality aspect was pointed out to the President she ingenuously replied that the area where the event was being held was covered by a permit and that she didn’t think that as President she should delve into such matters.
I would think this is precisely the kind of thing the President should delve into.
The institution of the presidency should be safeguarded against people who want to use it as a public relations vehicle to distract attention from their disregard of the law.
Putting up a showy event for charity and utilising the presidential office to give them legitimacy is a see-through reputation management ploy.
We can’t condone all forms of behaviour simply because an event is held ‘for charity’. It’s not as if the charity card trumps the legality card.
I believe the President is sincere and well-meaning in her fundraising efforts. However, the message she is giving out by being present on a site where the law is ignored, is not a good one.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt