Sometimes momentous events happen at momentous times and remain emblazoned in memory for varied reasons. Take the current exhibition of ceramics being held in Malta. An exhibition with 33 different ceramists grouped together, providing a cross-section of the current ceramic scene on Malta and Gozo. The event, organised by the Art Discussion Group was introduced recently by a seminar dedicated to ceramics in Malta. The speakers included two professional ceramists, a private teacher of ceramics, an expert in managing an industrial firm of ceramics, a therapist at the Social Centre of Mt. Carmel Hospital and myself as an art reviewer.
The whole event was sadly missing the presence of well-known ceramist Julie Apap who passed away suddenly during the run-up to the seminar and exhibition. The local art scene was dealt another blow within a matter of days, with news that another well-known ceramist had passed away. This time it was Neville Ferry, another foreign artist who, like Julie, had spent many years in Malta practising art actively, with passion and intelligence.
E.V. Borg, Chairman of the ADG, curator and prolific art critic speaks to me with a heavy heart, sad at the loss of two important artist friends, and yet hopeful that the local ceramic art scene is so alive and vibrant. Before elaborating on the present event however, he speaks in hindsight of the first ever seminar on ceramics organised by the ADG way back in 1993.
“To tell you the truth the preparations for that first seminar in 1993 were not as detailed as the present one. I vaguely remember Dr. Louis Lagana, a close collaborator and member of ADG (Art Discussion Group) at the time, advising me on a venue (a small hotel in St. Julians), reassured they would treat us well to a light lunch and provide the hall. The seminar was a resounding success with about 50 delegates attending. That day we had no panel of speakers but I as chairman invited interventions from the floor. Many spoke their mind as the report testifies. In fact this report was published in newspapers then and is published in the actual catalogue of 2011. This time we had 61 delegates, members of the press as guests, our sponsors and a crowd of ceramists.”
I ask E.V. Borg about his connection with Neville Ferry who was one of his closest and most respected friends, “I met Neville Ferry in the early 70’s. I still remember visiting with my family, his family at Fgura. He had just returned from his course in Loughborough. We immediately became intimate friends and never looked back. He used to invite me to create art works and I remember clearly finding a large slab of globigerina (franka) hewing in it a low kind of tank, put water and live tadpoles in it and a tombstone which we exhibited in the then Libyan Cultural Centre in the Main Guard. He was a bag of fun always trying to find the funniest side of things. From then onwards he invited me to be his curator and I organised about seven exhibitions of his work including that in the ‘Garden of Serenity’, on the water’s edge at Santa Lucia, and the last and significant one at Palazzo Castellania in Merchants’ Street, Valletta. In his generosity Neville donated a large ceramic sculpture to the St. Lucia Local Council which was placed in the sculpture garden I initiated there.”
Asked about his strongest memory of Neville, E.V. Borg says, “Neville was a kind man. We loved nature so much. He used to come for me in his car and drive to Qrendi. We used to walk to the cliff edge and watch a sunset or even a sunrise. Like myself, he was obsessed with archaeology and once together and with others with similar interests we covered a ‘cella of a temple at Mnajdra and watched the rising sun entering through an oval hole in the wall until the ray became a flame and fell on a theoretic plinth in the centre with probably a statue on it and lighted it up. We were filled with astonishment. This experience inspired me to write an essay about Neville’s art that I think is prose-poetry. Mnajdra was our refuge, our enclave, an escape. Neville is an existentialist. He can merge heaven and earth, religion and spirituality, heathen and Christian belief, classical and romantic culture, myth and reality, superstition and belief, liberty and bonding. Myth, magic and mystery are his realm.”
Talk turns to Julie Apap who became involved in helping him organise the seminar and exhibiton. E.V. Borg explains how he had known her for some 15 years. “I always respected her varied talents and visited her studio with friends. I also published an intense article about her work in the now obsolete publication ‘Malta This Month’, an Air Malta in-flight magazine. I chose Julie to represent ceramists on the ADG Sub-Committee to organise the Seminar and Exhibition of Ceramics 2011 on Saturday 26th March 2011. She helped us so much, though not our member, that we felt so obliged and grateful that we put a bunch of red roses in front of her work in the inauguration. Fortunately her husband Mr. Carmel Apap attended the Seminar in her stead. As I had said in my article ‘Elegant & Delicate’, (Malta This Month, no. 91, October 1997) “Julie Apap is a potter of quality. Her works are elegant, refined and meticulously finished with an attention to detail with occasionally burnished and polished surfaces. She specializes in functional ware and containers of exquisite craftsmanship and design with a fine decorative quality that induces the client to acquire a piece to decorate a corner in the house.”
On commenting about the outcome of the seminar E.V.Borg says, “I think the main aim behind ADG’s efforts has been achieved, namely to draw as accurate a picture of the local scene in ceramics as possible - a true, meticulous and detailed description. ADG has promised to publish a comparative study between the 1993 report and that resulting from the 2011 forum. The catalogue is a dictionary of ceramists or at least a start in that direction, and from the speeches, interventions and exhibition a tangible pattern has surfaced on the on-goings of this craft and art.”
Asked about the current ceramics exhibition of which he is curator, he comments thus, “I can hardly offer an objective evaluation of the Exhibition of Ceramics 2011 when I have been so closely and intimately involved together with my Committee. But I can say I am satisfied that out of 90 ceramists, 33 have participated - that is a good representative percentage. A clear pattern shows that six or seven ceramists have studied abroad and specialized in the subject in Italy (Faenza), in England (London & other cities), in the USA (New York), in Tasmania and other countries. Others have studied locally and now we have at least five to six generations of ceramists. I think overall the exhibition is a success and in future it will give positive results. It is inclusive, with teachers and students rubbing shoulders.”
Exhibition of Ceramics 2011 – A Collective Exhibition - Cavalieri Hotel, St Julians. Open until April 26. For further information visit www.adgmalta.net