Instant People – Just add Water! is Debbie Caruana Dingli’s sixth solo exhibition. With this title she is probably referring to our fast-paced way of life, where one is simply required to simply add water and dinner is served, and it is perhaps also an indication to her return to the watercolour medium after the last exhibition in oils. Moreover, the title prepares the viewer for a humorous journey through the exhibition hall, which, however, at the deep end becomes more solemn and reveals her personal conscience.

Although the works do not present pretty watercolours of bouquets and landscapes, it can be sensed that they were produced by a woman, and a mother, without being overly romantic. Throughout the exhibition, humanity takes centre stage, but animals feature too, and Lunch encompasses both, a composition executed with a scant rendering of detail, but with enough brushstrokes that effortlessly convey its simple premise.

Debbie Caruana Dingli is delving into issues currently affecting Maltese society, including illegal immigration – the subject of much debate as well as exhibitions – child obesity, as in Unkind words i and ii, two paintings of a girl and a boy by the sea, but the most captivating are the villager scenes that have an alluring disposition. So effective are the latter that I became more aware and appreciative of the unruffled atmosphere of village life that I get to open the door to in my own town. To further nourish my experience, two women were resting on one of the exhibition hall’s benches with their shopping bags sprawled around them. This was rather fitting with such paintings around; it was as though the paintings’ characters had come to life.

Village life obviously has been a great influence on Caruana Dingli, particularly the town folk who have become the unknowing protagonists of these watercolours. They occasionally also provide comic relief among the other sober subjects, such as a painting of two elderly, and not very attractively clad women entitled Dolce e Gabbana, a trait that is also infused in her cartoons seen in the last two solo exhibitions and other recent collectives.

Some individuals even feature in more than one painting, such as Agnese, who features in two paintings that carry her name, and Patsy, who has been captured with a somewhat patronising look in Patsy Lady and then in Elderly Couple where she shares the limelight with a man, presumably her husband.

This repetition of figures proves Caruana Dingli’s genuine interest in her ‘subjects’, as she gets to know them on a more personal level. An interest in the same persona occurs in a series of four quick sketches of the Man on Gozo boat, but the relationship between artist and sitter here remains that of pure investigation. There is an obvious interest in the elegantly dressed elderly man’s identity and distinctive features, which have been captured spontaneously during the ferry journey with fresh qualities that make the works seem unfinished. One of these is secluded in a niche and displays the man with a distant look, quite fitting for the expression he exudes.

Among the numerous watercolours is the butch Rally series positioned just before the immigrant series. This may have been included as a contrast to the previous and upcoming paintings, spanning the two themes, which are perhaps a bit too diverse, but which possess interesting qualities nonetheless. The inner section of the exhibition hall are of paintings taken from photo-journalism on the local illegal immigration issue which Caruana Dingli has interpreted with great dexterity, from the images taken by Chris Sant Fournier, whom she acknowledges in the exhibition leaflet.

As part of this immigrant series is The Lone Survivor that is particularly noticeable for the six varied expressions of the same immigrant whose desperation is poignant, but where a smile does not fail to feature. Poignancy is intensely evident where children are included.

Another painting taken from photo-journalism is titled Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe, obviously a silent, witty comment on the infamous bus drivers’ July strike. The whole body of work is characterised by undeniably strong compositions and an impeccable technique. One of her trademarks, the translucency of the medium, is seen particularly in the village scenes, such as in Street Corner in Siġġiewi where a lot of the paper remains untinged and even where there is colour, its translucency allows for the pencil marks of the quick sketch to show through.

Bold strokes of colour, do however feature, and bright colours are ample, such as in the landscape of Jumping at Wied iż-Żurrieq where with a few decisive and loose brushstrokes, the image comes intrepidly to life and in some of the immigrant series paintings which was probably influenced by the robes worn by the immigrant women and children.

Instant People – Just add Water! is open until Sunday in the main hall at St James Cavalier, Valletta.

Source: The Sunday Times, October 19, 2008