The artist in front of wise, by John Busuttil Leaver.The artist in front of wise, by John Busuttil Leaver.

Although John Busuttil Leaver is a visual realist, and thematically he is still attached to what surrounds us, the environment and our heritage, it seems that recently he has been moving towards another direction, that of leaving the unconscious to determine the subject matter and the process of his creations.

As an artist, Busuttil Leaver is a romantic and shows that he is very concerned about the changes in the environment. Here, he is presenting a series of drawings and paintings showing the evolvement from realistic imagery of rocks and cliffs to a surreal transformation of the seascape or landscape.

With the current exhibition, titled Rock Face, the artist is at first suggesting the accurate image of a scene. Then gradually these images are transformed into an imaginal reality and a re-presentation of fantastical faces of rock. He is encouraging us to feel closer to nature and the earth.

Busuttil Leaver’s attempt to create mythological faces continued to evolve into the first Rock Face group of works done with canvas. In the final works it seems that the surreal image is at work within a constrained dimension and use of materials.

He successfully created a visual language to express his ideas and beliefs

Last Easter, Busuttil Leaver had eight works exhibited at the Camden Image-Gallery in London. The works were eight pastel drawings on paper taken from the same series which are also on show. These can be considered as the predecessors of the Rock Face series.

Busuttil Leaver is continuously searching for new concepts and material. In recent years he successfully created a visual language to express his ideas and beliefs. He makes us understand that through the imaginary symbols of life, there is some form of reality.

These are, in fact the triad of media, perception and re-presentation which form an important part of the triad which the French, Freudian psycho-analyst Jacques Lacan, articulated about the meaning of the symbolic-real-imaginary. These three Lacanian orders serve to place subjectively within a system of perception and dialogue with the external world.

Rock Face runs at Palazzo de Piro, Mdina, until January 30. The exhibition catalogue may be found on amazon.com. ­­­­

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