Falling squarely under new genre public art, the Deep Shelter Project is an exhibition with a humanitarian scope. Jo Caruana talks to digital artist Pamela Baldacchino about her inspiration behind this community-focused exhibition.

Art is an integral part of our community. From café galleries to colourful zebra crossings, messages of creativity seep out into every aspect of our lives, making it brighter, more informed and more imaginative.

Digital artist Pamela Baldacchino is stretching the boundaries of art and community even further with the launch of her new exhibition, the Deep Shelter Project, at St James Cavalier.

The exhibition is part of a 10-month interdisciplinary pro-cess to create an audiovisual language that can be used within a hospital or clinical context.

“This project is all about integrating artistic research with research carried out in the context it is being shown in – in this case the medical world,” Baldacchino says.

“It will be shown to two audiences – nurses and therapists and patients or clients – within a hospital or clinical setting and it will also be seen by visitors to the public exhibition. Our hope is to expose art to new audiences, and thus expand and increase society’s engagement with artistic content.”

Before the start of this project Baldacchino – who has loved and been involved in art for as long as she can remember – was looking to take her own art to the next step and keen to understand which subject would direct her best.

She certainly has a mixed background. As a nurse by training, she wanted to further her studies in fine art. However, the only related course that struck her was a Masters in Fine Arts that specialised in the Digital Arts.

“In hindsight, my mix of skills has served me well and actually brought a lot to the table for this digital project. Thankfully, the course head Vince Briffa realised that; he interviewed me and was very encouraging. He said I was ‘sitting on a mine and didn’t even know it yet’.”

So, Baldacchino enrolled and she describes the first few months of the course as ‘surreal’. Until that point she had spent 10 years working very closely with artist Charles Cassar and, before his death in 2014, he told her she was ‘ready to go’.

When she eventually came to choose her area of study, Baldacchino found herself concerned with the potential presence of an interior abyss and the collapse of meaning, together with all sorts of bridging activity.

“A bridge is ultimately about support and constraint,” she says. “This led me to consider the hand, which is a form of bridge between people and this, in turn, triggered the importance of touch and how, through touch, one can show concern and empathy.”

‘Touch’ had actually been the subject for Baldacchino’s nursing dissertation, so, in many ways, she found herself going back full curicle. Ideas quickly started forming in her head and she wondered whether she could work with art that triggers an empathic response in patients at hospital.

Chronic illness can, in fact, be compared to a state that is at war – even if it is with itself

“I wanted it to have humanitarian scope and be a way of showing concern and comfort to an ill person. This sort of art falls under New Genre Public Art, as defined by Korean-American curator and art history educator Miwon Kwon in 2004. The best medium for this is undoubtedly the digital medium, as you are not tied to a site but to the community one serves,” she says.

Baldacchino believes that the interaction of art with all other aspects of society – in this project’s case with the healthcare environment – reveals layers of meaning that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

“My work started to develop from two main strategies,” she continues.

“One is obviously research; mine is mostly into areas of art, nursing, phenomenology and anthropology. The contemporary art approach, rather than being analytical, is more scavenger-like in nature, leading to the process of synthesis informing one’s work.

“The other strategy I used delves into the personal experience of chronic illness and the experience of care-giving and support. This innate understanding leads to an awareness of needs that the patient might have – needs that arise because of illness and needs that one seeks to attenuate through a specific choice of visuals.”

All of this led the artist to develop the concept behind shelter and the fact that a serious or chronic illness can, in fact, be compared to a state that is at war – even if it is with itself.

This metaphor brings with it a perversion, she explains: invasion is no longer an exterior process but an interior one.

“The cultural theorist Paul Virilio talks of war that brings about a destabilisation of the familiar environment, including one’s pace of life and one’s relation to people,” she continues.

“He analyses what he calls the aesthetics of disappearance, where objects are present but are visually concealed or camouflaged.

“I latched on to this idea and worked with the creation of a virtual concealing sanctuary for the patient, all within the confines of a head-mounted display.”

The works that developed from this concept were then named the Deep Shelter Project as the aim of the work was to provide an exterior space where one could feel sheltered and at home.

To complete it Baldacchino worked in collaboration with Luke Baldacchino and Christian Calleja on the music composition, with Anna Grima, Luke Galea and Ryan Galea on the digital animation and Anna Runefelt on the footage.

Making up the team Pawlu Mizzi, Matthew Cumbo and Enrique Tabone contributed on aspects of design and social media, while Raphael Vella curated the exhibition, which will move to Mater Dei Hospital in September.

“Now, I hope that my work is contributing to the island’s growing art scene,” Baldacchino continues.

“To actually have a contemporary art space in Malta is a dream that local, contemporary artists all share. It could be a place where artists meet to make art happen, where you can walk off the street to experience artists’ work and where concepts behind art are explained and new ideas generated. It would be a place where lives intersect on a social level.

“My own personal motive is to make art accessible. People need to be exposed to this sort of work and allowed to interact in whatever way they choose fit, whether to criticise or to appreciate it, to view or to participate.”

Baldacchino concludes by stressing that art without people sharing in its experience or making it happen, is not art at all but just a sterile artistic statement.

“People validate art, they make it worth its while. Sometimes an artist’s statement may make people want to scratch somewhere they cannot reach, so to speak, and they will erupt into what seems like a misunderstanding of the artist’s intention.

“However, the hubbub that ensues is really what society needs to keep people engaged in a healthy, reactive way to what is happening around them. And that is exactly why art is so important.”

The Deep Shelter Project is supported by the Malta Arts Fund and shows at St James Cavalier, Valletta, until May 31.

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