Premio Combat Prize

The Artwork forms part of the following research project:
Taking in consideration Semir Zeki’s (Visual Neurobiologist ) quote; “Visual consciousness is distributed in space” and “also distributed in time”, the intended project consists in the production of a series of sculptures following a recent interest in the “physical” deconstruction and the “cerebral” reconstruction of an image.
The intent is primarily to expand and explore the analysis of visual perception, starting from the notion that the image is the result of the brain. Father of neuroesthetics, Professor Semir Zeki, states that; “Artists erase reality to a greater or lesser extent, and substitute their own reality - created by their brains, instead.”
In this context, the sculpture consists in an artistic exploration of perceptive possibilities using related studies such as aesthetics and neurobiology; neuroesthetics, for the understanding and the testing of cognitive mechanisms of reality, the brain and ultimately our visual beings. The aesthetic experience is subject to existing laws that regulate brain activity, perceptions, and the neural structures involved.
Essentially, the physical research itself is about drawing and the process of building an image. The sculpture in question is made up of simple material: a sheet of transparent plexi-glass, wire and black paint. The wire goes into and outwards of the plexi-glass, acting as a line, which is sometimes also continued by painted lines on the
transparent material. When the viewer goes around the finished work, it results in an
experience of several different points of views, ranging between visual distortions and clarity, ambiguity and definition, memory and abstraction, intuition and “scientific” calculation.
The sculptures’ image content initiates from a figurative pose – the image is about “us” as human beings recognising our multiple “selves” divided along a particular area. The
viewer can notice for example distorted figure parts, but not only. From a specific point of view (which of course differs slightly for each and every one of us), one can then see the drawing of the complete figure. The transparency, reflections and distortions created by the materials used all play an important role in this, as well as the viewers’ direct engagement in reconstructing “the” image.
Matthew Attard nasce a Malta nel 1987.
Si è laureato presso l’Università di Malta e ha frequentato la Valletta School of Arts. Attualmente vive e lavora tra Venezia e Malta.
Nel 2011 ha vinto una residenza artistica di un anno presso uno spazio a Forte Marghera, tramite l’organizzazione Eventi Arte Venezia.
Ha esposto i suoi lavori nelle mostre presso Forte Marghera e Galleria A+A a Venezia, al Barbican Centre a Londra durante la mostra Creative Cities Collection 2012 e al Water Cube a Pechino.
Nel 2013 ha esposto presso la Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venezia.
February 2013
Line Drawings, FuoriPercorso, GalleriaMichelaRizzo, Venezia
December 2012
Invited to participate in The 2nd Art Water Cube Cup for International Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition 2012,
Olympic Water Cube, Beijing
October 2012
Premio Celeste Finalist
Exhibition at Spazio Ex-Gil, Rome http://www.premioceleste.it/selezioni/pg:it12/
July - September 2012
Selected to participate in Atelier in Esterno Exhibition, Forte Marghera, Venice http://atelier-in-esterno.tumblr.com/
August 2012
Selected to participate in the Creative Cities Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition, Barbican Centre, London
http://www.creativecitiescollection.org/
January 2012
Selected to participate in BxHxME Exhibition,
A+A Gallery, Venice http://www.domusweb.it/it/news/b-h-me-mostra-di-a-plus-a/
June 2011 – May 2012
One-year artist residency at Forte Marghera, Venice
Eventi Arte Venezia http://eventi-arte-venezia.blogspot.com