Raphael Vella is living and working in Malta and has focused in the past years on topics like the “Homo Melitensis” and the special spatial and mental conditions of islanders. A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down is the title of Collages he is displaying at the Mahalla Festival.
The artist is asking these questions:
In what ways are our attitudes towards medicine and health similar to our political convictions? A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down dissects modern society, putting patients under the care of politicians and converting a nation into a deranged clinic. Anatomical and surgical interventions, Maltese maps and party slogans are mixed to form a heady cocktail that tells a desperate story about a world that seeks salvation in a prison of its own making.
Description
The axis of symmetry equals power -- the various instruments are from Mr. Frankenstein's medical cupboard -- patients are nothing but survivors -- arrested guinea pigs -- the technology represents a step into the past creating in today's viewer a 'flair of morbid intimacy' -- long live lobotomy! -- triumphs of medicine galore! -- we are pushed, squeezed, injected, pumped up and sucked dry -- the octopus of mind and body control -- the network of physical surveillance -- we are trapped -- we are fucked -- we are mash … Michael Bock