LAST WORD FROM PARADISE Project

A current project which has origins in Fenech’s recent solo multi-media exhibition ‘DIS_’ at Spazju Kreattiv as part of the Valletta Capital Culture of Europe 2018 examines ways in which contemporary art can lead to generate awareness for climate change. The influences of John Milton’s epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ remains his source of inspiration and Milton’s use of the Latinate prefix “dis-“, apparently concocted from Virgil’s use of this word in the Aeneid, ‘Dis Pater’ or the ruler of the underworld, paves way to Milton’s idea that the events in Eden were events not only in the history of Man but also in the history of nature.

In this new work, the artist seeks to identify a wider set of cognitive and contextual factors that reveal trends in the voices and resonance of the poem’s etymological registers and its environmental implications. In this manner, he is bringing forth the contemporary relevance of Milton’s ecological ethos.

The video and light installation ‘Last Word From Paradise’ which is one of the finalised works from this project is currently on display as part of the international exhibition ‘Macht! Licht! at the Kustmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany curated by Andreas Beitin and Holger Broeker. The exhibition will was open until the 10 July 2022.

FULL CIRCLE Project

The title reflects Fenech’s first works which resulted from his encounter with the camera in the mid-70s. With his early knowledge of drawing and painting acquired from his father Giovanni B Fenech and artist Esprit Barthet, and his self-taught use of photography, Fenech engaged in documenting Maltese and Gozitan lifestyles on black-and-white 35mm film. This endeavour went on for a good ten years and the resulting archive from this work is was digitised and edited so that a selection of 117 prints were laid-out in the publication together with a compelling essay by Mark-Anthony Falzon, a professor of anthropology at the University of Malta. The publication, ‘Caged Spaces – A photographer’s gaze of Malta at the turn of the millennium’ is accompanied by an solo exhibition in the Camerone Gallery at MUZA, the Malta National Museum of Fine Arts, in Valletta, in June-July, 2024, curated by Caroline Tonna.

THE NEW EYE OF OSIRIS Project

Following two solo exhibitions ‘Noontime in the Boatyard’ and ‘Waiting for Columbus’, and a duo show with Prof Richard England for the Valletta Summer Arts Festival in 2008, Patrick Fenech’s collection of colour photography composites, influenced by the Maltese boatyards, will be edited and designed in a full colour publication, which will also include recent works on the same theme.