It's all paperwork, but you shall see no paper.  For those familiar with the term 'trompe l'oeil', normally used to describe paintings which are so realistic that deceive the eye, after visiting this exhibition, one might understand why I feel confident enough using this term to describe these sculptures by Antoine Farrugia.  The works making up this exhibition are deceiving enough to seem like paper, but in fact the medium is our beloved Globigerina Limestone. 

I am honoured to be curating this exhibition for Antoine Farrugia and the Valletta Cultural Agency.  Antoine is one of my very best and loudest friends, and I have been following his artistic journey for the last 15 years or so.  From being tasked to purchase his tools every time I visit Firenze, to the privilege to be the first (or one of the first) to see each and every artwork that he creates.  Unfortunately, I am also the first to endure the aftermath of the rare occurrence when one of his fragile beauties breaks up, at the very last moments of the finishing.  

Antoine Farrugia even though an art lover since a tender age, started sculpting in his thirties.  However, he evolved rapidly and exceptionally throughout the years, especially through the initial years under the guidance of Anton Grech, when he started formal training at the School of Art where he obtained his diploma in fine arts.  His early inspirations are evidently from Henry Moore and Constantin Brâncuși.  His favourite medium is the Globigerina Limestone, but not only.  He produced large-scale works also in wood and steel.   He took part in a number of workshops and symposia both locally and abroad, the one most at his heart being the European Sculpturing Symposium in Fraunhstein, Germany, where one can also find a large-scale sculpture by Antoine executed in Serpentine stone and Albanian marble, now public art.

As mentioned, I have known Antoine Farrugia, for too many years and I remember when the work and research on this 'paper' theme had started around five years ago, when the first four works in this series were born. A surreal feat of bravura in execution and making stone look so malleable and reaching the limits of the globigerina limestone.  The series was 'shelved' for some years, while Farrugia explored other forms - more abstract and sensual - that he is mostly known for.  But this theme was always at the back of his mind, waiting for the right opportunity to be able to showcase them in the right exhibition and the perfect venue... and here we are.

The first four works which were executed earlier, apart from being hanging sculptures, are set on a concrete base and one can notice that the 'paper' part is not polished.  There is a reason behind this.  Only recently (almost a year ago), Farrugia finally managed to concoct the 'magic potion' which enables him to polish and wax the globigerina limestone and still keep the original pristine colour of the stone (which one can observe in the newer artworks).  Normally, if one applies polish on this stone, the stone darkens and loses its particular colour.  This kind of finish was shown for the first time in his previous solo exhibition Xulliela Bajda, held at il-Kamra ta' Fuq in Mqabba.

The four hanging sculptures portray pieces of paper, almost alive, caught in an imaginary breeze, defying gravity.  The only alien material is one real wooden peg, which is wittily used to 'hold the papers together'.

The newer sculptures in the series are set on lava bases, which enhances a deeper contrast between sculpture and base.  A playful array of paper usage is being investigated in this exhibition, some more unexpected than others.  Have you ever seen restaurants stacking papers of ready orders onto an upright projected small rod, impaling the pieces of paper? Well, here you have it, in one of the artworks which includes a slightly tilting stainless-steel rod with two 'papers' stuck in it. 

Of course, maybe more expected, a number of sculptures are showing a more classic 'paper-pose', for example, the scroll like duo of papers, masterly executed in perfect roundness almost reminiscent of delicate cannelloni ready to be stuffed with goodness. Another artwork attempts the impossible by having three strata of papers gently twisted on top of each other.

I hinted at Antoine to have some play on the art of origami.  I asked for an origami paper-stone swan.  He did an origami paper-stone aeroplane.  But he didn't just stop at that.  He created a spectacle.  The stainless-steel rod here is again an integral part of the narrative, a vision of an aeroplane suspended in mid-air, in motion, like a silent performance of this lifeless - yet full of life - aeroplane flying towards a place known only to Antoine.  This sculpture reminds me of Salvador Dali's painting 'Nature Morte, Vivante' where a series of still life objects come to life.

I can boast I am 'the source of inspiration' for another sculpture, which I shall refer to as the paper cone.  While Antoine was working hard on this theme, I invited him to take part in a collective exhibition that I curated, which was an exhibition exploring guilty pleasures.  Antoine kept insisting that he has no guilty pleasures (which would be very sad if true).  So, I decided to share one of mine with him, i.e., eating three ice-creams a day (sometimes).  He liked the idea and immediately started sketching (an empty ice cream cone). But a lovely thing happened.  Being so absorbed in the paper theme, his ice cream cone ended up being a paper cone, which lucky for me, I could also include in this exhibition as well.

Another sculpture where the stainless-steel rod is incorporated is showing a 'thin' strip of paper twirling over itself, stuck to the rod, which recalls a beautiful performance of rhythmic gymnastics using ribbon.   But that is only in my imagination.  The artworks are untitled, and everyone is free to see what they wish to see in Farrugia's works. 

Another work shows a 'wet paper' set to dry on a stainless-steel stand, while another sculpture is capturing the metamorphosis from the rugged stone on the lower part of the sculpture to the immaculately finished glossy paper at the top, where a sheet of paper is gracefully peeling itself away from the sheets underneath it, with a life of its own.

The last work executed in this series moves away from Antoine's more abstract style and verges on the figurative where we can enjoy a sculpted open book, where a few pages are being toyed with by an imagined slight breeze.

Farrugia managed to give the Maltese Globigerina Limestone the attention and importance that it deserves by transforming what for most of us is ordinary into something extraordinary.  He put the Franka on a pedestal, especially when considering how it is being neglected, rejected and replaced by bricks and concrete nowadays.

The exhibition It's All Paperwork by Antoine Farrugia, is being held under the patronage of the Hon. Anġlu Farrugia M.P., Speaker of the House of Representatives, Parliament of Malta.  It is produced by the Valletta Cultural Agency with the participation of the House of Representatives.

The exhibition runs till 11 December at Parliament Building, Valletta.