Towards the end of last year, painter Ray Piscopo used his art to address all aspects of poverty. Here, he takes a look back at his art and explains the concept in more detail to Iggy Fenech.

In today’s money-driven world, poverty is almost exclusively seen as a sign of not having enough material wealth. Yet, while a lack of possessions has always been seen as a sign of penury, it was the Industrial Revolution that made us gauge how rich or poor we were exclusively through what we own. And it’s that concept of wider-poverty that Ray’s Exhibition of Social and Modern Art, held to commemorate the second World Poverty Day, strove to address.

Beyond Words

“The wider extensions of poverty are something we rarely look at,” the former engineer tells me. “Poverty may, of course, be taken to mean the deprivation from something that people need to keep them going in life – but even in that context, the lack of material goods and basic necessities can lead to physical and mental hardships.”

For Ray, however, poverty doesn’t stop there. In his own words, poverty can be extended to thoughts, feelings, knowledge and joy. “Indeed, poverty can be brought about by oppression (usually involving physical or mental abuse), deviant practices, or outright manipulation of the mind,” he adds.

“More importantly, we need to understand the root cause of the problem and avoid applying labels to people who find themselves in pitiful and inhuman conditions that, in civilised countries, are part and parcel of the economic progress the country boasts about.”

Follow The Light

To showcase this range of poverty, Ray exhibi­ted 17 works at Dar Qalb ta’ Ġesù in St Venera. The art, which was painted over the past four years in the artist’s signature, pop-arty bright colours, was powerful in both composition and style, with subjects that varied incredibly.

Among the most noteworthy was The Beggar Boy, which shows a boy not older than seven huddled underneath rags as he begs for alms in the street: What is his story? Are he and his family really starving or is he a pawn in a ring of beggars being exploited?

That was placed not far from another strong piece, You Cannot Change Destiny, which portrays a young woman doubled up onto herself in grief and physical pain. Here, the artist asks us to think about how circumstances can deprive us of leading a normal life; how emotions can take over our physical being and leave us feeling desperate for a way out. In this case, not even money can save the young woman.

Then, two other paintings – No Good in Goodbyes and Beyond Words – looked at mourning the loss of a loved one and how the same feelings can be triggered by very different circumstances. Has the person died or have they simply moved on and left despair in their wake? How poor do we feel when the object of our affection is taken away from us?

The Beggar Boy

“My thoughts on poverty went beyond the meaning of the word. But that doesn’t change the fact that most poverty is the consequence of something else: it could be a result of bad human decisions – willful or otherwise – or it could arise from a world economic situation.

“Such decisions, mostly brought on by politicians and people having a monetary interest, define things should be done without considering the effects these may have on vulnerable people.”

From lack of trees and clean air to the depths not having enough money can take us to, Ray wanted audiences to stop and think: not only of all the things we don’t have, but also the things we do: How lucky are we to be able to go home to a loving partner at the end of the day? How lucky are we to have healthy children? How lucky are we to have a roof over our heads and food on our tables? How lucky are we to be able to speak our minds without fear of retribution?

The Pigeon Man

This, I believe, is also Ray’s way of telling us that, unless we appreciate what we have, we also stand to lose it without even realising. And that has always been Ray’s aim for his art. Indeed, as Professor Oliver Friggieri, who has reviewed Ray’s work on multiple occasions, once wrote: [Ray] seeks to penetrate the outer shell, hopefully to discover meaningfulness. For [him], art demands moral justification, and is not in any way an end in itself.

“His art disproves the idea of ‘art pour l’art’ [art for art’s sake]. The purpose of art is not art, but the discovery of meaning, ultimate, final, obtained through the depiction of objects with a ‘pen’ that records and interprets. It is an intellectual sort of art which, however, does not sacrifice beauty to truth. Without this intellectual outlook, it remains what it is, free from any rational rigidity.”

You Cannot Change Destiny

Now, the artist, whose majority of work is acquired by European and American collectors, is focusing on his upcoming work with a potential exhibition in Italy on the horizon, among many other plans.

“By nature, I am very active and innovative and do not like being stagnant. My plans are to go beyond that which is obvious. I have already prepared larger-scale artistic projects but, as can be expected, one cannot realise whatever projects one may have unless there is funding. Although many projects may remain on the drawing board, I definitely intend to use technology coupled with art in my next projects. Being a professional engineer, I can couple art with engineering and hope that people will like it, too,” he concludes.

Whatever Ray dabbles in next, what’s certain is that he will continue addressing issues that are close to his heart.

www.raypiscopo.com