A SIGHT TO SEA – Coastal Recollections
EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND
Fine Art Photography by David Pisani
By popular demand a selection of the collection A SIGHT TO SEA will remain on show at SO Galerie until 30 September 2010.
Fine Art Photography by David Pisani
One of the primary concerns of contemporary art is its ability to reflect on the human condition and the times we live in. The artist’s own introspective research often mirrors the society or environment in which he lives and works and his art becomes a hightened statement about the realities that surround us. In documenting the Maltese coastline David Pisani has embarked on an inner exploration of his childhood memories connected to the coastal regions he visited as a child. The choice of technique (an archaic pinhole camera) deliberately emphasises this concept of memory by producing images that resemble the vague reconstructions of childhood memories. More often than not these images conjured by the mind are lacking in detail and are somewhat obscure, yet they carry all the emotional energy of the experience of a time and place. Through the use of very long exposures these images are also a contemplative record of time passing. However this collection also poses deeper questions about the environment we live in and the changing conditions of our planet. As we become more aware of the earth’s fragility we must also confront the uncomfortable questions regarding human activity and the consequences of our interference in the natural environment. Far from being a political statement this collection seeks to reveal the realities of nature as we perceive them today and as we may one day have no other means but to recollect them as distant memories.
David Pisani…..
... I had long been considering a photo essay on the Maltese coastline, prompted by the fact that the Islands were threatened by over development and that many places I knew as a child had succumbed to the forces of so-called economic progress. However I have never been an eco-militant nor politically motivated in my art and the whole idea seemed somewhat contrived. Early in 2009 both my parents passed away within weeks of each other and as the process of grieving took hold of my senses I was drawn back to the coastline and to the memories of the seemingly endless summers spent with my parents and my brothers. As a new urge to document these places began brewing inside me it became clear that what I was trying to photograph were the memories, or the mental and emotional images I had of the coastline, and not a systematic documentation of “what’s left”. From this came my decision to shoot on a Zero Image 4x5 pinhole camera and to produce a series of images that reflected what I felt, rather than what I saw. Yet despite my apparent avoidance of any political involvement it soon became clear that my images also became a testament of what the pristine Maltese coastline looks like today, and what it may one day look like only in our minds as a distant memory.”
From 1 August, 2010, until 30 September, 2010