The Malta Independent on Sunday
It’s not about sex: On {v} as a celebration of the female form
Feminism: This word is thrown around everywhere nowadays; Tshirts, handbags and protest picket signs. It’s unavoidable. But the concept of feminism comprises a multitude of things, too many of which to be tackled within one exhibition. {v} takes one of these aspects into focus, looking at demystifying the primary element comprising the female form – the vagina. Now, you might be saying “what is there to ‘demystify’ about a vagina. It’s JUST a vagina?” Well, yes, but you can’t really deny the fact that the vaginal form brings about a general discomfort within people, one which, contrastingly the penis does not evoke. While speaking to Lisa Gwen, the curator of this collective exhibition she points out this fact, mentioning examples from around Malta where phalluses are in plain sight.
Before getting into the specific details behind this project, it needs to be stated that an exhibition centring around this subject matter has been a long time coming. Lisa was the person who had originally proposed the idea for an open call Spazju Kreattiv had for
Art + Feminism for the year 2020. The proposal was considered, but the consensus was that it couldn’t be part of an exhibition, but a project all of its own. The idea for this project goes even further back to when Lisa was a volunteer at the National Museum of Fine Arts (predecessor to The Malta National Community Art Museum, Muza) where she had proposed an exhibition on erotica, making this exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv one that is of personal significance to Lisa.
That’s essentially the backstory of the concept behind {v}, a simple concept which has been forming for years. Perhaps though, despite it being an idea that has been present for a while, it could not have come at a better time within Maltese society.
Issues surrounding the vagina and female form such as masturbation and abortion, create a slew of controversy anywhere, but perhaps especially here in Malta, a culturally conservative, mostly Catholic country. With clashes between pro-abortion and antiabortion constantly seeming to become more heated as time goes by, {v}’s taking place at Spazju Kreattiv is more than timely. That said, it’s far from being an “abortion exhibition” or an exhibition about masturbation.
It’s giving these issues and related subject matter a prominent platform. It doesn’t scream “do this or do that”. It simply puts audiences through an experience, a representation within a public space to perhaps provoke a few thoughts in the people viewing these works by these artists’ voices. It’s true that matters pertaining to the vagina are ones essentially tied to women and feminism, but that does not mean that that somehow denotes that this is a “women only” exhibition – far from it. With contributions by male artists Gabriel Buttigieg, George Muscat, Kane Cali, Marcel Pommer and the inclusion of a collective work by Christian Muscat, Matthew Pandolfino and Kevin Attard, it acknowledges the need for this to be a discussion tackled by all sexes.
Even though {v} promotes discussions on serious topics, it’s also playful. From Alexandra Aquilina’s screenprints pastizzi idols showing Malta’s favourite snack intertwined with religious iconography to Jenna Tilley’s fluffy pink “pussy puppet” in Flapland, {v} aims to represent the vagina and vulva tastefully. That is the key word behind the choice for the works which are in this collective exhibition – taste.
Looking back at history and the world which surrounds us, vaginas and vulvas are often presented in a distasteful and even pornographic manner. In {v} they are celebrated throughout. Either subtlety such as through Kim Sammut’s photography and Ritty Tacsum’s L-Istorja tal-Pastizz video and floral wallpaper or through more overt representations as in Marcel Pommer’s images, {v} celebrates the female form through a range of artistic mediums. It also includes a performance piece titled Did you
come? by Charlene Galea; a kitschish performance of a date night gone wrong which takes place within the exhibition space. Beyond focuses on the vagina itself, it further integrates commentary on society at large, as in the case of Suzanna Scott’s Coin cunts (jewel tones), a series of bright inverted vintage coin purses which illustrate the intrinsic ties between sex, power and money.
For more information visit www.kreattivita.org
Artists: Alexandra Aquilina, Kevin Attard, Isabelle Borg, Gabriel Buttigieg, Kane Cali, Charlene Galea, Christian Muscat, George Muscat, Matthew Pandolfino, Marcel Pommer, Kim Samlmut, Suzanna Scott, Ritty Tacsum and Jenna Tilley