Meet Adrian Abela
Residency Details:
July 2023
Adrian mm Abela (1989, Pieta’)
He studied architecture and civil engineering in Malta and Milan and received an MFA in sculpture from UCLA. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Abela’s practice meanders between poetry and metaphor to provide visceral interpretations of his perspective on being on Earth with its multiple histories and possible futures. His endeavors stem from curiosity about encountered materials and/or narratives in the waking and/or dreaming states. He uses science and inspiration to acknowledge that self-awareness and acquisition of knowledge might be illusory and temporary while harboring and forming part of a self-similar system. Together they intertwine their experiences of the complex, through spirit and politics, (the intrinsic and extrinsic, the passive and willful, the aware and alienated, the present and ignorant); to navigate consensus reality.
The Residency
The purpose of this residency is to develop a series of lectures/sermons with new diagrams and ink drawings to be held as gatherings derived from the artist’s experiences with an octopus.
In 2008, the artist went snorkeling as a form of meditation on life and death in a bay adjacent to a field in Xgħajra (next to the sewage treatment plant), where his granddad had passed away a few weeks prior. It was there that an octopus appeared, emerging from obscurity through the sun’s rays that penetrated the sea’s surface, much like the illumination in a cathedral. The mollusk paused, fixing its gaze on him in a slow, hypnotic dance, and a thought whispered, “If you learn to understand me, you shall know God.” Due to his upbringing, the metaphors that emerged from his reflections were predominantly Catholic. Consequently, he created some drawings and video works based on this experience. However, over time, he abandoned the project as the intensity of the memory faded. He considered it to be a mere act of coincidence, but he maintained his interest and studied other faiths, philosophies, and cultures. Ten years later, emerging from a prolonged period of depression, he found himself in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California. While hiking, he witnessed a scene reminiscent of the cathedral’s luminous rays, instantly transporting him back to the memory of the octopus in the sea. It was then that a new thought emerged, whispering, “You were interpreting me all wrong, now you know.” The understanding was no longer Catholic but an amalgamation of the literature he had read and the scientific discoveries regarding the creature’s anatomy that had been published since their initial encounter.
Subsequently, he created a series of drawings called “BAĦAR” (Sea), which served as icons or tableaux. These drawings proposed the octopus as a model for reality and presented frameworks through which we could engage with the world using metaphors. The research and revelations embodied in the drawings were both spiritual and political in nature. Reflecting the neuronal distribution of the octopus, Malta was suggested as the first limb to actualize its position in the system, transforming revelation into action. This concept was first published as an artwork in a sculptural, text, and interactive form called ‘Declaration of Dependence; Drafts and Depictions’ in 2023 as part of a group show at RGallery in Sliema, Malta.
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