National Anthem
The exhibition ‘National Anthem – Media Art and the Status Quo’ is a multi-disciplinary artistic project dealing with the complexity of Malta’s current social, economic and political relations. Underpinning the work is a study that positions contemporary discourse and photographic practice in the context of the human-nature narrative where in predominance, the camera reflects and acts on the landscape and its conversion or attempted conversion under commercial transactions. Through experimental approaches and a combination of media, the project examines and criticises the social order as well as the human impact on the environment. This ensues in close proximity with the subjects of industrial development and global capitalism, which cumulative effects of past and present actions become determinants of the forthcoming.
Theoretically, it supports the idea that industrial development, free market models, a focus on economic growth, together with a conjuncture of greed and power, fail to support sustainable economic development. The project explores local vistas and destructive short-sighted measures that favour economic growth at the expense of adequate planning as well as investment in social wellbeing. Despite its romanticised and idealised utopian depictions as seen in several advertisements or party-political promotion, the Maltese landscape has been altering, both figuratively as well as physically. Amidst an economic boom which will certainly produce further repercussions on our living environment, the exhibition aims to show what is beyond the cosmetic make-up of these saccharine projections.
On such treatise, ‘National Anthem’ could henceforth be regarded as a form of socio-political activism, an outcry for this land and what the order of day has become to signify. While the protestation pleads for a re-evaluation of our economic and political systems, it could also serve as a warning sign, a call that opens the possibility of further dialogue on socio-economic practices within the Maltese borderline.
Kevin Mallan | Visual Art | MA Photography, Falmouth University
b. 1989
MALLAN, Kevin. 2019. Wied Għomor | San Ġwann [C-Type Print].
Għomor Valley is a controversial stretch of land that has been repeatedly subjected to development pressures.
Inħoss il-ħolm isabbarni fl-ibħra ta' dawl illużorju, ġewwa deżert lil hinn mill-konfin ta' inkonxjeta' li għasar issa anke il-vojt.
Fil-vojt ta' din il-pjanura smajt l-għajta tal-profeti tidwi minn kull direzzjoni. Inħossha tidwi u tniggeż l-etern u l-assurdita’ ta' ħajja mtaqqla mill-progress.
Waħdi rħejt miexi qalb l-għoljiet, nipprova nżomm mal-patt li naqqaxt fl-intern ta' dan il-ġisem effimeru.
Għidt xi darba jaf naqta' l-frott, forsi mhux minn dielja ikkankrata tokrob għall-għaliex.
Inħoss pajjiż jgħakkisni fuq xagħri fejn il-ward ma jinbitx.
Għidt qabel nindifen nixtieq nara l-ward abjad jgħatti l-widien iżda l-widien hawn jinstabu mbikkma, jistennew il-qerda bejn snien l-inġenji tal-qarib.
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ENG translation
Away from the intemperance that drained all void, dreams console me, there, in the rippling play of illusory light, in a desert on the threshold of unconsciousness.
On these empty plains, I hear the keen cry of prophets echoing from every direction. I can feel the resonant throb that stings eternity and the absurd of a life burdened by progress.
Alone in hills I wondered, guarding an oath I carved on the inside of this ephemeral body.
I had promised myself I would harvest fruit not, perhaps, from a cancerous vine moaning, whimpering, asking “why?”
I feel a country oppressing me on plains where roses seldom bloom.
Before my burial, I believed I would see white roses cover entire valleys and yet, the valleys here drown in tears of sorrow.
Their fate awaits in the jaws of their neighbouring industry.
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K
MALLAN, Kevin. 2019. South East Coast | Xgħajra [C-Type Print].
A stretch of south-eastern coast has been designated as the only possible site for large-scale land reclamation projects by the Environment and Resources Authority. Image follows after photographic documentation of the area.
MALLAN, Kevin. 2019. National Anthem | Triptych [Giclée Archival Print].
‘National Anthem’ bears its name from a triptych on view. There, the camera shifts perspective onto Tigné Point and Sliema in the opposite direction of the iconic Valletta landscape that is used in multiple property and touristic advertisements. Portrait compositions stand in opposition. The Maltese national anthem, a protest song and sound pertaining to construction areas from the subjected view are merged into the photograph’s raw data, which is then destructed in an audio editing software. A new image emerges out of an unauthoritative destructive data alteration method. Results can be seen abstracted and equivocal, tying in to the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous notions imbued within current and futuristic discourse relating the causes of neoliberalism.
MALLAN, Kevin. 2019. National Anthem | Series of Risograph Prints
MALLAN, Kevin. 2019. Għallis Engineered Landfill, Magħtab [C-Type Prints].
