FINE ART BIOGRAPHY CONTACT ITALIANO
Click on thumbnails to view each series…
On
the island of Elba, nature and simplicity rule. The idea came to me while I was
sitting in my field: a special place where I like to sit and meditate. The sun
was shining and the wild fennel plants cast their shadow onto my leg. Their
unmistakable form spoke clearly to me and I felt caressed by the plant’s
essence. A Photogram is made by placing an object (in this case a plant or
flower) directly onto the light-sensitive paper in the darkroom, and shining
light onto it. The shadow that is cast by the flower becomes the image, similar
to an x-ray. There is no camera involved and no film, therefore the images
cannot be reproduced and no two images can ever be the same.
By using this technique, I am allowing
Nature herself to come into the darkroom and translate my emotions into images,
using her beautiful language of flowers.
Memories
can be triggered by many things, large and small. While living in the USA as a
foreigner, my work focused primarily on memories of my childhood in Malta and
England.When I was a little girl, I would help my mother bake pies. With the
leftover pastry we would make a small ‘special’ pie and fill it with something
sweet as a treat. My grandmother did this too. Carrying on the tradition, the
‘special’ pie became a vessel for my memories. As I prepared to return to
Europe, my focus on nostalgia turned from memories of home to recent memories
of my life in America. Each ‘special’ pie contains an object that is
representative of a memory made while living in America. My choice to represent
this work photographically stems primarily from my love of the medium, and also
from it’s power to change proportions and instill magical qualities into small
objects.
“MEDITERRANEAN
MEMORIES” (2004)
As a foreigner living in the USA, family
roots and heritage carry deeper meaning in my life. Through old childhood
photographs from my family archive, I am able to reconnect and reconstruct the
family ties that bind me to the root of my existence. My family hails from
Malta, a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea where the
sandy-colored limestone walls still bear the scars from World War II. I grew up
with stories of extreme hardship and pain experienced during the war, coupled
with joyous childhood memories filled with simple pleasures, pursuits and
adventures. The life-philosophy and family values that I absorbed as a child
have been engraved in my psyche and I carry them with me every day, generations
later, continents away. The family portraits in this installation come from
original negatives that surfaced after many years of being hidden away in
dresser drawers and shoe boxes. Each photograph has been hand-printed with
traditional darkroom techniques. At the age of 20, in the middle of World War
II, my grandmother gave birth to my father. Eighteen years later, she had 8
healthy, happy children. This exhibition is dedicated to her and the legacy she
has left me with.
Historically,
women have been the primary subjects of male artists. In ‘Boys Will be Boys’
men are the subjects of a female photographer.'Boys Will be Boys' is a
photographic series that challenges the stereotypes of males by looking at the
personal bathroom habits and habitats of different men. Many men have primping
and preening obsessions that defy their male stereotype, for example dyeing
their hair, shaving their bodies and painting their nails. In the privacy of
his own bathroom, a man is able to conform to, reject or hide from the numerous
stereotypes that face them in the 21st Century. These images present a
realistic portrayal of men’s ‘private’ lives, without necessarily denying their
maleness, or masculinity.This work is partly a response to the recent
proliferation of female artists documenting and exposing their own personal
lives, and those of other women, resulting in the breakdown of the numerous
feminine stereotypes. As a post-feminist, it is my desire to counter-balance
this trend and offer an exposé of a man’s life, and challenge some of his own
stereotypes. As a curious female photographer I am able to give a non-biased,
and sometimes voyeuristic view of my male subjects.
LINK
TO ARTICLE IN CREATIVE LOAFING (4/22/2004)
“A
SENSE OF SILENCE” (1998-2001)
I
love to travel frequently and particularly like to immerse myself in a totally
alien and foreign place. Without routine and familiarity, I experience life with
the raw excitement and naïve liberty of a child, seeing and experiencing
everything for the first time. Everyday images appear unnaturally striking and
certainly more interesting when looked at through the eyes (and camera lens!)
of an outsider. I also have an inquisitive nature that leads me on wonderful
adventures. I never know what I’ll find around the next corner and I often find
myself in places where I shouldn’t be. This adds a certain thrill to my
pictures that fuels me further, and to cross more boundaries. My lifetime is a
never-ending journey of exploration and discovery and through my photography, I
feel I am able to share these discoveries with others to promote the
understanding of different cultures and different people.
Fiona Buttigieg
+39 347 274 1778
FionaBee@gmail.com