Description
John Paul Azzopardi
John Paul Azzopardi, born in 1978 in East London and based in Malta, is an artist renowned for his philosophical depth and intricate bone sculptures. He holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Malta. His work challenges viewers with themes of existential silence and decay, intertwining life and death in his unique artistic expressions.
Artistic Journey
Azzopardi’s notable participation in the 2017 Venice Biennale and his inclusion in MUŻA’s (The National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta) collection with his work “Curved Silence” highlight his critical acclaim. His art provokes contemplation on societal values and the human condition, making him a significant figure in contemporary art.
Bones
The architectural relationship that oscillates back and forth from the simple and the complex to the living and the dead connects space and form, creating existential structures of interwoven silence. The death embedded in its form, its life. This might confront the spectator with a spectre, the simulacrum of itself that stalls, halts being something in its tracks. Facing truth, man often does not look. S/he does not see, for instance as when confronting the world, the transient. The rule of words then is that what one sees is what one is, and (to admit) that facing truth, we often see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing…little realising that this obtains us the golden opportunity to become just exactly that, viz. to be like nothing…which in turn provides us with the further opportunity of doing away with the lethal subject/object diabolical duality seemingly inbuilt into our very thinking processes, our language games and the acquisitive activity that they generate.
