If one has never visited Sicily, perhaps it is difficult to understand the ethos behind the works of Gaspare Cascio. True to the character of his native land, this extraordinary artist draws on what cannot fail to inspire – childhood memories, mysterious myths and a land of plenty that is ablaze with the colours of nature and fantasy. Typified by the Cascio Blu that rivets the onlooker to attentively observe and take in each and every plate, plaque, and objet d’art on show, these majolica works tell a million stories.
Cascio, native of Sciacca, a small village south of Palermo says, “I draw on what I remember of a childhood which was certainly not as idyllic as I would like to remember it. Yet, although we did not have the luxuries of today, we were happy and in time memories grow fonder and even happier, and we like to remember the old days as being fantastic and unfortunately unattainable.”
Starting out as a traditional ceramist, he bravely forged ahead to impinge his work with something of his very own. Far from the tried and tested formulas adopted by other ceramists who re-worked the usual ‘traditional’ images onto their works, he plucked up courage one fine day, to create creatively. “I was about 30 years old when I ventured to free my spirit through my art. That first plate I made carried a story of my childhood. I have never looked back.”
This is not the first time Cascio has been to Malta and he is well known to Maltese ceramists. Today, he is a seasoned artist and teacher of artistic education, with a stock of past international exhibitions to his name – well over 50 to date, one of the most significant being the 1969 Faenza contest, the XXVII Concorso Internazionale della Ceramica d’Arte which placed his works firmly amidst the 200 exhibits selected out of 2000 entries.
His works tell of truth and myth, religion and superstition, dreams and true moments in time which have remained emblazoned in the mind’s eye of a boy who experienced a Sicilian rurality traumatised by a world war that destroyed tranquillity of place and mind. Each image has a meaning, whether it is a Pegasus, a barking dog, a palm frond, a goat or the image of an old woman administering a magical rite over the head of a young girl. The sinister and the profane mix and blend even as his centre piece is a Christmas crib. Even his dog, a Doberman bitch killed in the service of protecting Cascio’s family home, becomes riveted in an image of quasi-mythological creature that is a riddle to be solved. These are not mere artefacts that look handsome on a console – they are a part of a time, a place, a space and a man’s lifelong love story with his land and its inbred traditions.
Exhibition by Gaspare Cascio – Palazzo Castellania, 15 Merchants Street, Valletta. On until 2 January.