(UN)EXPRESSED

What does it mean to remain composed when the experience of daily living threatens that composure?  In (UN)EXPRESSED, Shanice Farrugia’s first solo exhibition curated by Mel Erixon, the self-portrait becomes a study of emotional containment;   the effort of holding together what cannot be said, the vulnerability concealed beneath apparent strength and the uncertainty of living with the possibility of loss.  Through drawing and painting developed over the last two years, the artist turns inward, seeking not so much to represent an identity as to make visible the psychological pressures that shape it.

The face is the exhibition’s principal territory, but these are not conventional exercises in depicting likeness.  Cropped, fragmented and sometimes partially obscured, the self-portraits resist the expectation that a face should disclose its subject.  Closed eyes, upward gazes and expressions suspended between exhaustion and composure become the vocabulary of an interior life.  The restraint is deliberate.  Emotion is neither overly dramatized nor resolved, but held in a state of tension.  The works suggest that silence is not an absence of expression.   It is itself a form of expression, shaped by the effort required to suppress what is felt.

This approach acquires a particular poignancy from the circumstances informing the work. The artist’s father has been living with follicular lymphoma for almost six years and his illness introduces the experience of anticipatory grief. The mourning of the possibility of a loss that has not yet occurred. It is a condition in which hope and fear coexist without reconciliation and the present is continually shadowed by an uncertain future. Rather than illustrating illness directly, the artist explores its psychological reverberations, locating the burden of uncertainty in the face and body.

The raven present in a number of artworks is associated with death and omen and this gives this uncertainty a symbolic presence. Yet, its significance is strongest when it remains ambiguous.  A witness to passing time, a reminder of mortality, or an embodiment of the mind’s persistent anticipation of what may eventually come.  The raven occupies the threshold between presence and absence, reinforcing the exhibition’s central tension without entirely resolving it into a single narrative.

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Shanice Farrugia (Photo: Monique Gatt)

Materiality extends this psychological inquiry. Kraft paper used in a number of artworks introduces an earthy intimacy, while deep burgundy evokes flesh, blood, warmth and bruising. Colour in these artworks becomes more than atmosphere.  It lends physical density to emotions that otherwise resist articulation. There are broad points of comparison with Jenny Saville’s psychologically charged treatment of flesh and John Singer Sargent’s sensitivity to light and the subtleties of expression. Yet the exhibition’s distinctive interest lies in the relationship between the visible surface and the emotional life it only partially discloses.

The works are most persuasive when their formal choices carry this meaning independently of the biography behind them. Their fragmentation and withholding invite viewers to recognise their own learned forms of emotional restraint. The expectation to remain strong, to continue functioning, to conceal distress despite all adversity.  The personal thus becomes a point of entry into a more widely shared experience amongst the viewers of this exhibition.

As If Carved

There is, however, a tension within the exhibition’s consistency. The recurring subdued expressions, sombre palette and restrained compositions establish a coherent emotional language, but they can also limit its expressive range.   When concealment becomes the dominant visual strategy, the distinction between individual states of feeling risks narrowing. Greater variation in tone, composition or mark-making might have intensified the contrast between fear and hope, vulnerability and endurance, making the quieter works more affecting still.

Nevertheless, (UN)EXPRESSED finds purpose in what it refuses to resolve.  It offers neither the reassurance of overcoming grief nor the catharsis of emotional release. Instead, it considers life as an ongoing negotiation with uncertainty. The effort to remain present while acknowledging that presence cannot be guaranteed.  And these are fact of  life that our society today chooses to ignore.

The exhibition’s most compelling insight is that composure should not be mistaken for peace.  Behind the still face, emotion continues to accumulate; beneath apparent strength, vulnerability persists. What remains unexpressed is not necessarily hidden from view.  Sometimes it is precisely what the viewer must learn to see.

Born in 2000, Farrugia is a multi-disciplinary artist primarily working in drawing and painting.    She graduated with a First Class Honours in Fine Art from the MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts and has exhibited in Malta, Londin and Berlin. (UN) EXPRESSED runs until November 8 at ‘Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq,’  Mqabba.