Toqol Ħafif

The theme of this exhibition, Vitae, refers to life and cannot better describe our experience of walking through this exhibition of sculptures by Mario Agius.

It is, of course, the life being given by the artist to wood and stone which takes shape and form and to which he carves a soul.

I have visited the three solo exhibitions of Mario’s works in Valletta and in St Julian’s and it is evident that in his robust and tactile works there is a search for a soul in the landscape and environment that surrounds him.

The Gozo landscape is an integral part of his works… the ruggedness of the rock shape, the sun-beaten trunks found in the dry clay and soil on the ground, the sweat and heat of the person walking and working the land.

It is a search in this dry landscape which is being conducted with calmness and in silence…patiently, but also persistently as his works are seen as a continuum and that can now be identified by their visible characteristics.

It is not a flat and horizontal motion, but one of restless movement tending upwards seeking the alpha and omega of the spirit – God. It reflects the movement in a shared planetary and evolutionary destiny, where man, animals, vegetables and minerals are unified in an effort to move towards the Supreme Spirit.

Agius’s works remind me of Teilhard de Chardin’s philosophical thesis that the evolution of matter to humanity will ultimately reunite us with Christ.

It is a conviction that man’s spiritual development is moved by the same universal laws as material development. Human creativity is being pulled towards a better world that will get us closer to God’s infinite project.

Agius illustrates this evolutionary process in his works.

It is a case of animating material – where human faces and bodies are being not completely, but partly carved out of stone and wood. It is never a completely finished work… it betrays the strength in the arms and hands of the artist as he chisels the human form out of material.

Agius’s works remind me of Teilhard de Chardin’s philosophical thesis that the evolution of matter to humanity will ultimately reunite us with Christ

It is an expression of human angst to free these human persons from their captivity, enslaved as they are in the rock and wood. It is a liberation from suffering… Teilhard also provides us with challenging ways of inter-preting suffering.

Agius embeds himself in nature to participate in the work of the Creator – Nature is the equivalent of becoming, self-creation, states Teilhard de Chardin.

Suffering is a compulsory human condition that forces human growth and development. This is evident in the works Toqol Ħafif, Magħsur u Mitħun, Kustat, Miġruħ, Via Crucis and La Pietà.

Tabernaklu

Agius can only breathe calmly when facing the female form in her role as a Mother. Smoothness in his art is only encountered in works like Omm and when the mother is caressing her son in Sheltering.

The soothing comfort of the Mother cannot be better experienced in what probably is one of Mario’s best works – Tabernaklu, where the mother’s womb with the still unborn child participates in the evolutionary process – the human person is unfolding within the tabernacle of the womb as an actor in the process of human development.

The child is passionate (depicted in red), restless, energised and dynamic in stark contrast to the stationary form of the white stone of the Mother.

It is only in one other case – L-Iben il- Ħali – where the male figure, this time the Father, leans dangerously and stretches out to his son in an act of immense mercy.

Again, the olive wood encourages you to touch the smoothness of this act of mercy at this moment of welcoming by the father of his repentant son.

Agius is an essence a thinker… and his thesis is that of searching the soul in the difficult, suffering and dangerous terrain of the earth we live in.

He gives us a glimpse of his experience in the interpretation of life from time to time in his exhibitions. It is now our turn to stop and reflect upon these works displayed here at the seminary.

Vitae shows at the Hall of the Sacred Heart Seminary in Victoria until today.