?orus L’Hemm/ An Island’s Dim Eye

Inspired by the traditional Maltese balcony that hangs on the facade opposite my home, I wanted to use the sense of wonder and nostalgia elicited by Maltese colours and vernacular architecture as a vehicle of protest against the destruction of authentic Maltese architecture in favour of concrete 'matchstick box' design complexes that maximise profits, but erase the role of local artistic trades.Throughout its history, Malta has been a melting pot of interactions between Maltese people and cultures from abroad. Our relationship with others has written our nation’s story, cleaved together by narratives of us fighting odds not in our favour, but always uniting and fight back.It is this story, and its reflections in our character, streetscapes and architecture, that people from all over the world come to experience. Nowhere else is the cauldron of ingredients from which our local character is born so evident than in our use of timber, iron and limestone.It shaped our island’s history, character and architecture, and it is to experience their confluence that people - be they expats, tourists or businessmen - choose to come to our island. Instead of uniting and celebrating the chicken that lays the golden egg, we’re laying siege to it.Profit maximisation has rewritten our social landscape, and in pursuit of that idea, we have started to share the same ideology as a cancer cell - infinite growth for the sake of growth.As an artist, I am most inspired by the elements that shape Maltese identity. In Maltese culture, we have a tradition of painting eyes on the bow of our luzzus (traditional fishing boats). The eyes are meant to protect sailors from evil spirits; in this illustration, they react to the destruction of a fellow balcony, expressing sorrow (the eyes in the middle), fear, and resignation.Luzzus are brightly painted in shades of yellow, red, green and blue, and the bow is normally pointed with a pair of eyes, a modern survival of ancient Pheonician customs in Malta. They are referred to as the Eye of Horus. This painting is titled ‘?ares l-hemm’ – ‘?ares’ is a play on the word ‘Horus’; in Maltese, ‘?ares l-hemm’ means ‘to look there’ – a nod to what the Maltese traditional balcony, reimagined with another symbol of Malta (the luzzu with the eye) in this piece, and animated through its eyes and wrought iron work, is reacting to.This time, however, the threat isn’t ‘out there’, it’s not at sea, and even if some may call them illegal, it’s not the boats landing on our shores. The threat to our identity are Maltese people we ourselves have entrusted with the future of our streets, spaces and buildings. Our heritage and nature is being stripped away from us and this time it's not by some invading foreign power, but by our own corrupt elected representatives.