Sack Jason Micallef before he does even more damage
If his ideas for Valletta 2018 so far are a harbinger of what is to come in terms of the actual event, we are in serious trouble. So far we have had:
1. Eur70,000 worth of pansy pots forming a 48-hour ’tile’ in St George’s Square;
2. plastic shutter-shades printed with the V18 logo given out to drunken teenagers at the Isle of MTV concert;
3. the mural below, at the Valletta seaport terminal.
You will notice that the mural (leaving aside the really poor execution, which is another matter) doesn’t exactly work overtime to dispel Malta’s unfortunate and untrue image as a sun, sea, girls, cocktails and beaches destination.
And this is supposed to be Jason Micallef’s idea of ‘capital of culture’? The man has no idea – and if that ridiculous old man, Martin Scicluna, wishes to call me an insufferable snob he can go right ahead and do so. But honestly, who would put Freddie Micallef’s nephew, a man with a secondary school level of formal education and no informal education to speak of, a totally uncultured, unschooled, uneducated man, in charge of something like this?
Not only is Jason Micallef nothing but an over-groomed redneck in a costly suit, and so hasn’t got what it takes to understand what is required here – but beyond that, the man absolutely cannot make conversation with the sort of people he will have to meet and deal with. And that is quite apart from the fact that he has no manners to speak of – certainly not real ones, but those fake ones that people learn very late in life for occasions when they are expected to be on their best behaviour.
Bikinis, beaches, parasols and cocktails, indeed. The idiot.
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Come on, what a joke, my 5 year old daughter has better imagination and can paint a better mural.It is childish, has terrible composition and the execution leaves a lot to be desired. In fact there is nothing in it that gives it any merit.
Criticise Jason Micallef & co. for their ignorance and ineptitude as much as you want, but be careful with people who are not in the public arena and who might be vulnerable to such a barrage of what amounts to little more than insults.
Ok, so you had your initial misgivings what to say. Now tell us how this Sunny Malta relates to the event.
What’s the concept? Indeed was there any core concept idea to express?
What was the whole event even about?
“On RTK Jason Micallef said that he only buys clothes from abroad. He hates it when he sees someone else wearing clothes like his, he said.
He buys from Austin Reed in London mostly. He also likes fine dining.
He also said that he lives for his son and tries to give him quality time.”
Don’t know what this has to do with the article but ok..
It is Jason Micallef’s idea of culture “il-van tal-gelati”!
This is getting weirder by the minute
Anyways y not focus on all the funds that went into ruining Valletta instead of arranging it, like the parliament building, or the “bieb il belt” if you can even call it that. I don’t know how we can make Valletta European Capital of Culture when all we are doing is modernizing the place… And why just fix and keep clean just the main street of Valletta and not all of it. Most of the side streets, especially towards the lower barraka, look abandoned. Most people don’t even feel safe walking in those areas when it’s close to night time so why not fix these places and give Valletta a bit of a nightlife too as after 8 Valletta seems to sleep. You can barely see any people. Everywhere is closed down, and why would people stay if they do not have where to go? So I think they need somewhere to go and make Valletta into a lively city once more. (This does not mean turning it into PV, but we can have more theatrical shows and places to go after the show is over.)
So you reject anything modern in Valletta but want to give it a bit of nightlife.
I suppose we could always reopen the brothels in Strait Street.
Do you people even know what a European Capital of Culture is or does? I’ll keep it simple: it’s not a mantelpiece for objets d’art (‘vetrina bl-antikitajiet’ in the evernacular).
Before you run away thinking this is in any way a criticism of anything Labour, note that the previous administration saw it in very much the same light. And before they even got to Valletta 2018, they had spent a decade or so messing the place up with their usual Christian Democrat/hniena socjali contradictions:
Upmarket and “vibrant”. And more social housing.
Upmarket and nightlife. And more monti stalls and souvenir shops.
Upmarket and Xarabank are mutually exclusive. Poor Renzo Piano tried to be nice to us aborigines, and never said it in so many words, but he jolly well knew it.
It’s just an opinion but i like how Valletta was before (ie before the last bieb il belt) keeping it as a historical place like Mdina would have been nice. I’m not saying Renzo Piano did a bad job coz it’s definitely better than the building there was prior to the parliament building but i would have preferred an older style building but that’s just personal taste.
How tedious. If Valletta were left in its original state, it would be a fortress with a foundry, a bakery and a hospital, no commerce, no theatres, no cinema and no nightlife other than the louche and seedy.
J, the original bieb il-belt was erected between April 1566 and 1569 and was little more than a hole in the wall.
In 1632 Porta San Giorgio was replaced by a more ornate gate.
In 1853 a new gate was erected, consisting of two central arches with two smaller ones and is the one to which you and many like you usually refer to.
The fourth City Gate was inaugurated in 1964 and has thankfully been removed.
And now we have the fifth attempt which cannot be taken out of context but read as a complex including Renzo Piano’s beautiful parliament buildings, open spaces, stairways and theatre modifications.
Culture is not ‘a mantelpiece for objets d’art’ as Baxxter rightfully pointed out. Culture is not using a bombed theatre as a carpark either.
London and Paris are places of indisputable culture and both have their fair share of modern buildings. This is what keeps them alive.
Finally, beauty is not as subjective as you may think and personal taste cannot come into it.
As Karl Lagerfeld once said “I love classic beauty. It’s an idea of beauty with no standard.”
My 5 year old daughter has better imagination and can paint a better mural.
Then please go aheae i dare you to create one as i am one of the creators and this is just part of althe mural… If ms caruana galizia is stupid enough to judge from just a piece of a mural then Im sorry but she does not even deserve to be heard. The mural shows the maltese acquaducts and the beautiful beaches and the mural shows the mural shows the journey of the tourist on Malta which this is the end of as they go back on the cruise ship and relax… There is also a bunny on a bicycle but i doubt you would see any of those around do you?? Its called abstract interpretation but i guess its like trying to teach art to donkeys as you are too artistically illiterate to understand
If Piano reacted to criticism like you do, he would be six feet under by now. You have much to learn, Rebecca.
Why would you want to teach art to donkeys Rebecca? At least they work…and for free.
And by the way taking the critique is part and parcel of being an artist, whether a good one or a bad one. As they used to say at San Alwigi all those decades ago, de gustibus non est disputandum..or something similar.
Yes fine, they gave you carte blanche to do as you please.
So Rebecca, imagine yourself the ‘tourist’ on a liner walking past the mural leaving this place, which image is it in the mural that should convince you to drop by in 2018?
Or better, what do you see happening then that visitors didn’t get to see this time round?
You felt the need to include Valletta 2018 in script to express the whole thing, did they even tell you what the plan is for 2018?
We might be artistically illiterate, but you might be a tad too idiotic not to notice that they could do better. At least they could make it a bit photorealistic.
Infantile sods.
Is the mural intended to appeal only to the artistically literate? Because there won’t be many on cruise ships.
Come on, what a joke.
Where exactly does the culture feature in all of this? Bunny on a bicycle I ask you! Are you all going completely mad?
Dearest Rebecca,
Would you mind – at least – trying to re-write, re-word, re-phrase and re-spell what you are trying to convey to us who are far less equipped with super-human intelligence than you?
The aqueducts are not Maltese. They are in Malta. There’s a difference.
Rebecca, fejn hija l-edukazzjoni li suppost tawk il genituri tieghek u li suppost tghallimt sakemm wasal l-MCAST?
Hekk twiegeb ghall kritika li saret lil din it-tpingija. Lanqas lili ma ghogbot u hela ta’ flus.
Tigi titghajjar li ahna hmir ghax ma toghgobniex dik il-pastasata li ghamiltu, veru trid tkun injoranta, basal, prusuntuza u li mhux ser tasal imkien.
Titkabbarx ghax tinstabat malajr.
“judge from just a piece of a mural” yes exactly , get a new job.
Kritika nehoda paroli fil vojt le imma ta.. One hi kienet al v 18 huma kienu il klijenti mux intom alura ahna kelna namlu bicca xol li togob lilom. Il kultura ta malta qeda fl akwadotti u fit tempju li pingejna u lideja kienet li kieku malti kellu imexxi turistfgurnata ta kuljum xinu possibli jaraw. Imposibli idahhal kolox farti wahda ax awn wisq fmalta biex idahhal kollox emm. U huma riedu parti kontemporanja allura ahna amilnija bi stil li jajdulu pop art. Haga naf li larti taghna ha jarawa ma 2.5 million passigiri u hafna ahjar mil hajt griz u ikrah li kien emm tal konkos… U li and ukoll li it turisti ogbitom ax ilom jiehdu ritratti maghha min nar it tlieta meta tlestit titwehhel.. So ajdu li tridu imma issa emm qeda u jien kburija li kont parti min progett li ha jarawh dak in nies kolla. And again whoever can do better i urge you to do so and show it to everyone as you should.
Better artistically illiterate than just plain old illiterate.
Oh and bdw we didn’t get paid!! The only money spent was on the printing…
Your English is as good as your sense of culture and your “artisticness”. As for Daphne being “artistically illiterate”? – Hardly.
Ms Rebecca, should we read your poorly written comment and assume that it is us who are grammatically challenged as well?
There are some things which demand professionalism and this mural is certainly one which transmits culture, it just portrays cheap, common fun which one can get in any destination.
Even factoring in the ‘bunny’ (it’s a rabbit, sweetheart, when you’re older than five) on a bicycle, I still feel the same way.
Dear Rebecca, can you translate what you’re trying to explain to us donkeys in English, please?
Dear Rebecca I assure you that I’m artistically literate and have worked with the finest in London for a time which is certainly more than you can say for yourself.
What I can see from this photograph is utter crap unless it was executed by a five year old.
It is childish, has terrible composition and the execution leaves a lot to be desired. In fact there is nothing in it that gives it any merit.
I’m not saying that you may not become an outstanding artist some day but that will only happen in the distant future if you get off your high horse and learn to take constructive criticism in your stride and learn from it.
As an artist surely you should be open to the possibility that some people won’t like your work? So, all in all, this is a rather over-the-top reaction on your part. Also, I don’t think the mention of a bunny on a bicycle is helping your case.
Is it a Martini that Ariel is drinking? Then why is she holding it like a Cognac?
Oh come on guys, give Rebecca a break. As she states, the artists were working to a commission. That Jason Micallef wouldn’t recognize culture if it leapt up and bit him on the nose is hardly the artists’ fault.
Besides, the mural might not have earned a place at the Louvre, but I’ve seen worse. A lot worse. I don’t agree with the message it conveys about Malta either, especially in conjunction with V18, but that is hardly a reason to attack the young artists who were commissioned with its execution. If it hadn’t been linked to the V18 event it wouldn’t have received such harsh criticism. I actually somewhat like its childlike freshness purely for its own sake.
Please, young artists need to be encouraged to persevere and improve in their work, not put down unnecessarily. We already have a moribund art scene as it is.
I have not seen your mural but if it is as good as your writing then it truly is pathetic.
If the average tourist visiting Malta is meant to see mice flying planes and bunnies on bicycles please give us some of what you’re smoking… Lord knows we will all need some come 2018.
MCAST is only producing design students who know how to use tools, and that is regress when compared to the old Bauhaus inspired system, which produced some very fine design talents in the nineties and noughties…
Aha! Now I get it. A bunny on a bicycle. Very culturally appropriate. However this is Malta not Enid Blyton land. Incidentally, did you draw the bunny yourself?
Besides, that’s why we’re critiquing your work, precisely because there are many other more culturally worthy sites to depict other than beaches and women.
The part reproduced here is perhaps the “best” part of the mural as the other sections especially those depicting buildings are stupid to say the least. Please don’t call that “contemporary art”. You said that you painted in the style “pop art”.
If you call a 60 year old style that has been out of fashion 50 years contemporary, then you lose me. And that is not pop art either. Go back to your art history books if you know what they are.
Bubu, that’s exactly my point; V18 is not for students to be left to their own devices.
Rebecca formed part of a team of students competing for best entry against a non-brief, patronised to think it actually works.
Which it doesn’t, ‘Stil li jajdulu pop art’ must be the culmination of how our young are conditioned to follow convention, cut and paste to resolve that which should consume them.
So they discovered Lichtenstein, but why weren’t they pushed to overcome the initial thrill, take it up another notch?
Rebecca says they weren’t paid, just the printing expenses, and there you have it – use their insecurities to save on the art itself. And doesn’t the result betray inexperienced students left to themselves?
Dear Rebecca,
The work displayed on this mural is great to be displayed in a nursery or a kindergarten/primary school. It’s simply childish and not abstract interpretation. You call it pop art, fine lets call it pop art: still it is not fit to advertise the European capital of culture.
Secondly, what is cultural in beach, spilled ice-creams, bikinis and doughnuts? Do you really believe that Malta’s cultural heritage lies all and only in the aqueducts? What about Valletta itself, the European cultural capital, isn’t that part of the cultural heritage?
Jozef, none of which justifies the rollicking that this girl is getting. Criticise Jason Micallef & co. for their ignorance and ineptitude as much as you want, but be careful with people who are not in the public arena and who might be vulnerable to such a barrage of what amounts to little more than insults.
Such comments, coming as they’re are during their formative years as artists and relating to work that, perhaps might not meet your stringent standards, but of which they are nevertheless obviously proud, comments like the above could do a lot more harm than good.
Perhaps these students have much to learn – definitely they do, but fostering young talent and creativity is exactly what this country needs to bolster its crippled cultural situation. Somehow, kicking a young artist to the dirt for doing her best, just because you don’t have a liking for the people who commissioned the job doesn’t strike me as doing much towards that goal.
Yeah Rebecca. Valletta and bunnies, so very much in common.
How come that I’m so stupid not to see it?
Point is, that mural is not suitable to promote Valletta 2018.
For promoting Ghadira, Armier, Golden Sands or St. George’s Bay…maybe.
That cartoon mural is suitable for a child’s bedroom minus the woman in a bikini of course.
The girl on a doughnut seems to be angry at the mural she is in.
Getting a payroll for this while the whole public sector (2000+ included) work their ass off.
What’s his target audience? 3 year olds? Gvern tad-dahq!
http://www.bibleetnombres.online.fr/images79/marseille-capitale-europeenne-de-la-culture-2013.jpg
http://ericabalduzzi.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/bergamo.jpg
http://www.italicnews.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/logo-Matera2019.png
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/cd/2a/ba/cd2abae905fd11d77e75e5afbddda0c7.jpg
Graphics at this point are necessary to imprint the viewer with the shape of things to come. I walk past and it registers.
In this case cities have an underlying form, memory or vocation. A teaser.
Bergamo’s hilltop geography versus Prague’s music.
Marseille’s multi-ethnic map and Matera’s inorganic sassi.
What exactly is Valletta 2018?
Who expected to be paid for this insipid little thing?
I thought it would get your dander up.
If I may venture an answer, Valletta 2018, in its Maltese incarnation, which is the exact opposite of the European City of Culture definition, is a showcase of HERITAGE and Kulcher.
That was an objective question.
But yes, when everything in Valletta was by those li mitna ghal wicchom, ghallinqas hekk jghid Salvu Daschund, no pansy can ever get us to own the place.
Watched one of his efforts, first he says we built the temples, a minute later the builders disappeared without leaving a trace.
Utterly ridiculous and so cheap! Unbelievable. Is this our heritage? You either laugh or cry.
If only we could cry or laugh. It’s much worse when you are left speechless and a sense of apathy gets hold of you.
Unbelieveable rubbish.
You missed one important brain wave by Jason Micallef. He told us that he wanted to make Strait Street another Paceville.
Jekk Jason Azzopardi qed jahseb he, ser jarrallu zgur ghax f’din it-triq joqghodu familji bit-tfal zghar u kbar li filghodu kmieni irridu jmorru xoghol, nies anzjani u hafna minnhom morda ukoll.
Diga qed inbghatu bil muzika li qed issir kwazi kull filghaxija, bi amplifiers minn dawk il kbar hafna, jinghalqu toroq, toroq mimlijin b’imwejjed, siggijiet, umbrellel, u bicciet ta’ ghamara ohra. U dan minghajr il permess tal MTA. Pero s-suspett taghna r-residenti huwa li hemm xi hadd fil Kunsill li hareg xi permessi.
Il kunsill tal-Belt mhux qed jaqbez ghalijna.
Jason’s suits aren’t costly. They’re shiny and mostly synthetic, bought off the shelf, and he chooses to forgo the cost of getting the trousers shortened.
[Daphne – Il-marelli, you know the difference between ‘forgo’ and ‘forego’. I’m impressed.]
Words are my tools. I need to know them like a surgeon knows his scalpel.
I used to know the difference between ‘for play’ and ‘foreplay’.
Striking difference in quality:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_9228000/9228774.stm
I think that’s exactly what the intention is, divert any funds to taghnalkoll hotels and stuff.
Beach concessions ghax Valletta 2018 hux.
If reading Sir Alex Ferguson was the best and last book that Jason Micallef read then enough said about this man’s culture.
Oh and talking of culture, where is dak il p*fta – bic- coff hiding.
How low can culture get…… pornography ?
Hawn tad-donuts! Who comes up with these brilliant ideas?
The mural is honest and portrays the reality of Maltese culture: Jason Micallef.
It only lacks one thing: Jason Micallef’s rictus smile.
Spot on.
It looks like a bawdy seaside postcard.
It does not look like a ‘bawdy seaside postcard’. It is.
Not even Butlins could come up with anything as stupid as that.
Sorry Observer, a bawdy seaside postcard was always in the hands of a Mr. Donald McGill, whose artwork, sense of bawdy humour, and double entendres was a benchmark for millions of British tourists everywhere. Collectors items also. This sorry piece of shite is just downright tacky, amateurish and, well, just crap.
It is this kind of thing that makes me doubt Jason Micallef is gay, and not just another terribly tasteless straight man.
Yes, the teeny weeny polka-dot bikini.
You forgot the destruction of three €5000 stone pines to make way for ‘a V18 artistic installation’.
Haven’t seen that yet. Better be good.
http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2014-08-02/news/tree-killing-season-6063915008/
Oh no
Reminds me a lot of the sleeve of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” album…though it would have been more appropriate for “Help”!
Oh for heaven’s sake.
It is nowhere near Yellow Submarine in composition or execution.
Yellow Submarine was creative art and may I remind you that it is something executed almost fifty years ago.
This mural is the pits in all respects. It is an insult to art not because of what it is but because of what it represents.
@ Chico – that’s it….. that’s what it reminds me of, was racking my brain to try and remember. we had a jigsaw puzzle with the picture of the Beatles “Yellow Submarine”. (am giving away my age now).
Qisna bil-van tal-gelati.
As one of the people who created this mural – there’s a lot more then meets the eye. There is literally only 1 picture in the article which shows a girl in a bikini with a drink but no other parts of the mural.
You need to take into consideration the other parts of the mural such as the part showing the traditional Maltese Balconies, Temples, it’s not just a beach, & also we’re an Island it’s hard not to think about beaches when surrounded by water.
Also – this mural was an assignment with MCAST Art & Design. We had our clients, we had our restrictions, like dealing with the wall itself. it’s not its some poster or booklet, it’s a relatively long hallway – not the easiest canvas to work with, & also had other rules to follow. We followed the assignment brief which was given to us – so please before you all go jumping the gun calling it poorly executed take these things into consideration before you blame students as well.
If you had all those restrictions than for your own pride you should have refused the assignment not made fools of yourselves.
You can’t turn down an assignment or you fail the course. Duh.
Now this is interesting.
What you are saying is that you either execute something for free or you fail your course.
There’s a word for that I’ll have you know and it’s called BLACKMAIL.
Blackmail is a criminal act so I now expect the competent authorities to take not of this and investigate.
Now we will ask all the tourists to do a little research before passing by the mural.
You completely miss the point. The criticism is directed at the people who conceived the idea, who gave you people all the ‘rules and the canvas’ with which to work. V18 deserves much more but you cannot expect the ‘much more’ from Jason Micallef.
One last point. As artists, you and your students had the duty to discuss and give your input to the project and not just abide by the guidelines given and follow the rules, as you put it.
I understand that the criticism is mainly directed at V18. My argument is that the way the article is written. The mural is NOT just a beach full of bikini girls. There is a lot more to it.
Do you really think a bunch of students have a lot of input over, lecturers, V18 & the Valletta Cruise Port? It’s easier said then done, & apart from this assignment, we had other units AND our thesis to work on.
I completely understand not everybody will like the style or colours or whatever. To each their own.
Would you call a medical student a doctor? How can you call an art student an artist?
Now it’s a little clearer. The mural was a student assignment. I suppose it could score a C, maybe a C+ on a day when I’m feeling generous.
But is that good enough for V18? I don’t think so.
Fun Fact: It was a collaboration with Valletta Gateway Terminal too.
‘…You need to take into consideration the other parts of the mural such as the part showing the traditional Maltese Balconies, Temples, it’s not just a beach, & also we’re an Island it’s hard not to think about beaches when surrounded by water…’
Ok, so you had your initial misgivings what to say. Now tell us how this Sunny Malta ticker postcard relates to the event.
What’s the concept? Indeed was there any core concept idea to express?
If you had your restrictions from the so called “proletarian socialist authorities” then you could have been real artists and told them all to fuck off.
Artists are supposed to be rebellious not authoritarian arse licker’s.
In any case you are obviously all a bunch of badly traveled spoiled young students.
Who assigns students murals for major walls?
A bunch of tight arses wanting everything for free.
Jozef, it’s V18, not Valletta 2018, which says it all. There’s your answer.
Doughnuts. Don’t forget the doughnuts. The “girl” is actually “floating” in a doughnut, not a rubber tyre. All we needed was a man named George next to her, to complete the picture.
If one does a little research, they will find that the wall on which this mural is placed, is very very long. and unfortunately here we only see a small part of it, so i feel it is unfair to assume the full mural is of only and just a beach. But even if it was, what is so wrong? one of Malta’s selling point is the sun, beach and sea. This is just a mural to welcome tourists, and provide a fun abidance, to an under wise dark and boring passage way. The mural, i assuming, was not intended to be a symbol of the Maltese islands, but merely a fun colorful welcoming twist to he island. lastly… the students here might have not all reacted well to some of the comments, but some of the comments here are far from criticism. Lets focus more on the people who funded this project, and not to unpaid students, who simply followed orders.
D. What do you mean by people that funded this project ? Not withstanding the adverse comments regarding the creators, if they didnt pay you, what funding are we talking about ?
V18 and Valletta cruise port funded this, no? and the students we are here accusing of bad work, where simply flowing a brief, and i am sure where not paid, and probably had to face a lot of challenges. The problem here is not the art work, art is subjecting, not everyone can like the same art piece. The problem here is, that we are discussing a mural the V18 paid for, that mainly tourists will get to enjoy, and not Maltese people. While on the other hand some-parts of Valletta, (everyone should be enjoying), are still in an unusable, horrific state,and require urgent care if we really want to have a worthy city of the 2018 title.
Why didn’t you guide them thoroughly, that this obvious result and reaction be avoided?
Followed orders? So was it Jason Micallef’s idea of culture, having a woman “floating” in a doughnut, not to mention the general naffness about the rest of it? So very amateurish, so typically Labour.
This is getting weirder by the minute.
I’m sorry but I don’t agree. Beaches and women are not part of our culture. Beaches and women are just that, beaches and women. The latter are found all over the world, the former in at least a third of countries in the world.
Selling points being sun, beach and sea.
You will please explain where link to the culture is. Or better, does it have to be a literal visual catalogue?
Where’s the comment? Or are the three above accepted dogma to exalt? Is it possible these are self-serving truths, beyond which we cannot go?
Do you realise the risk of being seen as prostituting the whole event to the usual tourism numbers? Now if that’s the subtle intention, we’re getting somewhere.
Bring on the polka to fill the wall with cranes, ricers, bling, kiosks, planters with cigarette stubs, cars everywhere, and our own cans of kunserva, the ones which got you Tonio’s clock as a special offer, need I go on?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140807/local/valletta-cruise-port-tunnel-inaugurated.530968
Mr Chairman V18 was also busy presenting a lottery prize to some very excited people who won a boat, in his capacity as chairman of the Labour Party’s Red Touch Phone.
On RTK Jason Micallef said that he only buys clothes from abroad. He hates it when he sees someone else wearing clothes like his, he said.
He buys from Austin Reed in London mostly. He also likes fine dining.
He also said that he lives for his son and tries to give him quality time.
I call that a desperate housewife.
One word: Jaqq
No, two words – add Hamallata
See this and learn, Rebecca.
Here’s one artist’s mural as part of a bid to make Aarhus (that’s Denmark again) the 2017 European Capital of Culture.
http://www.idoart.dk/wp-content/uploads/DvdNGodsbanen-Agency.idoart.dk-138s-696×464.jpg
http://www.idoart.dk/wp-content/uploads/DvdNGodsbanen-Agency.idoart.dk-154s-696×464.jpg
Here’s a mural for Marseille 2013: http://thefranceproject.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/marseille-art.jpg
And here’s a mirrored canopy at Marseille’s Old Port
http://thefranceproject.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/photo-by-colossal.jpg
And this mural won first prize in a competition as part of Wrocław 2016. It’s called “Gate to Nadodrze”. Nadodrze is an old district of Wrocław.
https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/51867677/disp/a2f62b52b57fb07d8a9b952ca515362b.jpg
https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/69760751/disp/beb0b1204aedde8b26a9622cb5806c4f.jpg
Now compare this with your work and the brief upon which it was based. As a Maltese citizen, I hang my head in shame.
The MCAST students who produced this mural might have fulfilled their brief, but in what way does it meet the aims and objectives of Valletta 2018?
I may be missing something , but where are the free balloons?
At last we can all see what the iced bun looks like.
The damned thing should be removed immediately and put up in one of the paediatric wards at Mater Dei.
Less foreigners are likely to see it there and our collective embarrassment will be somewhat contained.
Quentin Blake should be warned about this and advised to travel to Malta by air.
I think that this mural DOES represent Malta after all.
It represents Malta under the present MLP government and all it stands for.
It is at best mediocre, hollow, artificial and with not a touch of class or values.
In a nutshell – a waste of space and I’m not only speaking of the mural now.
‘an example of high quality contemporary design.’
I just hope Times of Malta was quoting someone not making it’s own assessment.
I assure Times of Malta there is nothing of high quality or contemporary about this ‘artwork’.
This kind of stuff emerged in the mid-fifties in Britain and London in particular, spreading to the USA some years later.
In those days it was excitingly new.
This novelty feeling can never be expressed by today’s students who merely copy the style but cannot live it as the concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.
Indeed some of the designs were truly exceptional.
I don’t understand how the same artist who did stuff like this http://37.media.tumblr.com/2fcce1b0d39171b5d61386aebd6ee738/tumblr_n46thccXxl1rvpyjco4_1280.jpg
and this
http://31.media.tumblr.com/fb964450dcc582f14aff130c2e4640bf/tumblr_n46tpgUO7q1rvpyjco5_1280.jpg
worked on the mural above?
What went wrong?
It’s the brief that was wrong. I knew it.
A doughnut for a tyre, and a circus troupe for a government.