Raphael Vella
Artist, Curator, Educator
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
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