Conditioned Comforts Installation, filmed & edited by Anthony Mizzi @antmizzi
Conditioned Comforts, 2021
Spazju Kreattiv Programme 2020 - 2021
Installation view in order: Protection, Surface Level/Distant, Boundaries, Safe Space, Submissive, Scene vs Feeling, Constant, Avoid, Tense — Instant —- Temporary, Distract, Excess, UN —, Happy Medium
Conditioned Comforts,Emma’s first solo show develops her concerns with our generation’s state of being, enveloped in twenty-first century endless soothing-tools. The term conditioned comforts encapsulates a reliance on human-made forms of ‘comfort’; the word human-made is here interpreted in its literal materialistic sense, while also extending the notion of ‘human’ to the ‘self’, something self-made.
The juxtapositional nature of posing the two words ‘Conditioned’ and ‘Comfort’ together suggests that these familiar forms of ease are acquired through repetition making them un-innate. This leads us to question; if the pursuit of such comfort has to be produced or learnt, then just how comforting is it to our lives?
Emma explored these notions further through gentle interviews with friends, colleagues and acquaintances. The comforts expressed varied from one individual to the other. However, there was a present reoccurrence with the interaction with such comfort; protection, avoidance, repetition, excess — it is the relationship the comfort fostered, rather than the comfort itself that struck interest and set the foundation for this body of work. The theme was explored through a formal language of deliberate colour and textures alongside interactive installations. The work witnesses a transition from one room to the next; from cultivating awareness — through uncertainty and feeling — to a sensitivity of the existing energy, while recognising the strength and softness beyond it.
If you wish to read further into to the grounding, process and intention of this body of work I encourage you to read the Curatorial Note written by Margerita Pule, for a pdf link click here.
This project is supported by Arts Council Malta & Aġenzija Żgħażagħ as part of the Artivisti Programme.
COLLABORATORS
MENTOR Margerita Pulé
WRITINGS Gabriel Lia
AUDIO James Dingli
PHOTOGRAPHY Justine Ellul
MODEL Andrea Amato
TEXTILE ASSISTANCE Anna Borg
PHOTOS & VIDEO Anthony Mizzi