Louis Laganà
Although John Busuttil Leaver is a visual realist and thematically he is still attached to what surrounds us, the environment and our heritage, it seems that recently he has been moving towards another direction, that of leaving the unconscious to determine the subject matter and the process of his creations. As an artist, Busuttil Leaver is a romantic and shows that he is very concerned about the changes in the environment.
Here John is presenting a series of drawings and paintings showing the evolvement from realistic imagery of rocks and cliffs to a surreal transformation of the seascape or landscape. At first, John is suggesting the accurate image of a scene. Then gradually these images are transformed into an imaginal reality and a representation of fantastical faces of rock. The artist is encouraging us to feel closer to nature and the earth.
Busuttil Leaver's attempt to create 'mythological' faces continued to evolve into the first Rockface group of works done with canvas. In the final works it seems that the surreal image is at work within a constrained dimension and use of materials.
Last Easter, John had eight works exhibited at the Camden Image-Gallery in London. The works were eight pastel drawings on paper taken from the same series which are also on show. These works are the predecessors of the Rock Face series.
John Busuttil Leaver is continuously searching for new concepts and material. In recent years he successfully created a visual language to express his ideas and beliefs and make us understand that through the imaginary symbols of life, there is some form of reality. These are in fact the triad of media, perception and representation which form an important part of the triad which the French, Freudian psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, articulated about the meaning of the symbolic-real-imaginary. These three Lacanian orders serve to place subjectively within a system of perception and dialogue with the external world.
Rock Face will be on display at Palazzo de Piro, Mdina from 6 December to 30 January. The exhibition catalogue may be found on amazon.com
Dr Louis Laganà is a senior lecturer at the University of Malta, an art historian and critic, and a practising artist