Why are there no great women artists (in the new advanced art syllabus)?

This paper critically evaluates the appropriateness of the History of art component of the new 2008-2010 Matriculation and Secondary examination (MATSEC) Advanced and Intermediate Art syllabi. The syllabi propose a traditional ‘canon’ of eighty works of art for students to study, including some of the most wellknown painters and sculptors in the history of Western art. However, it simultaneously excludes several groups: in particular, women, non-Western and living artists. Modern and contemporary Maltese art are also omitted, while the artistic media represented in the list are very restricted. The paper argues that these exclusions are deceptive precisely because their omission from the list is ‘hidden’ behind a veil of inclusiveness (the list covers a very long period: from Palaeolithic cave-paintings to the twentieth century). Hence, students are led to think that this survey is the ‘story of art’, when it actually offers a very partial account of artistic expression. The concluding propositions offer directions that future re-evaluations of the MATSEC Art syllabi might take.peer-reviewe

Translating the avant-garde into Esperanto

How important is the “public” in contemporary works of art? Should we expect artists to communicate with or educate their audience? Whenever the public is brought up in debates about funding for the arts, the selection of appropriate memorials for urban spaces or art education, discussions often focus on the “difficulty” or élitism of avant-garde art and the need to transform art into an instrument of cultural stability and understanding. This paper deals with some prominent cases that have dealt with these issues in the last quarter of a century, and argues that Jean-François Lyotard’s thought provides us with a valid defence of avant-garde experimentation in the arts. The last part of the paper argues that the various calls for public relevance often oversimplify the notion of the “public” by not taking into account the heterogeneous nature of postmodern societies.peer-reviewe

Avoiding “a Kind of Physics” : arts-based educational research

This article studies the viability and significance of arts-based methods in the context of educational research at the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. It contextualises the field in its cultural and institutional settings, describing some of the challenges that arts-based methods of research have faced. It compares these creative methodologies to more empirical research methods that are generally associated with the field of education, illustrating the innovative combination of the role of the artist with that of the educational researcher by referring to two arts-based dissertations submitted by Masters students at the Faculty of Education. Finally, it argues that the value of arts-based educational research is located in its attachment to the actual experience of making art and the transformative capacities and specificity of art itself.peer-reviewe

The Unpresentable: Artistic Biblioclasm and the Sublime

This study investigates the destruction of books carried out by artists during the second half of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first century. It proposes the term 'artistic biblioclasm' as a general category that groups these processes together, and distinguishes this category from works of art that also deal with the theme of the book but make use of other media (rather than real books). In my own practice, various biblioclastic processes are applied, documented and then discussed in the thesis. I analyse the aesthetic, political, religious and other implications of artistic biblioclasm in my work, with particular emphasis on the cultural (and Catholic) context in which the work was shown: the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. 'Part One' opens with a review of the literature related to the theoretical perspectives that inform the thesis. This is followed by the 'Practice Methodology', which identifies the methods used in my work and offers some preliminary reflections about the theoretical dimensions of these methods. 'Part Two' explores the historical background of artistic erasure in the twentieth century and develops a descriptive and contextual typology of biblioclastic practices, classifying them into four groups: book alterations, biblioclastic book-objects, formless books and dematerialised books. 'Part Three' advances Jean-François Lyotard's work about the sublime in aesthetics as a viable theoretical framework that firmly defines artistic biblioclasm as a postmodern (rather than modem) artistic phenomenon. This connection with Lyotard's work is made possible by comparing the formlessness of the sublime to the loss of the book's 'form' in biblioclastic processes and also by linking some relatively little-known essays by Lyotard that focus on biblioclasm or the book to other, better-known areas such as the sublime and postmodernism. 'Part Four' focuses on the political and religious dimensions of biblioclasm and the problem of representation. It distinguishes between politically repressive or fundamentalist forms of biblioclasm and artistic biblioclasm. Lyotard's notion of the 'unpresentable' - influenced by his reflections on Judaism and the Holocaust - is examined and linked to earlier discussions about the sublime and to the work of some artists described in 'Part Two'. Analogously, in my practice the Catholic idea of the book as an authoritative figure ('Magisterium') is elaborated and 'deconstructed' in the actual processes that make use of doctrinal texts. The research concludes by interpreting artistic biblioclasm as an attack on the closure of the book (with Jewish undertones) and a form of resistance to totalising political or religious forces. In my work, dogmatic interpretations of books and their 'truth' are related to the threatening possibility of violence in contemporary societies, and are ultimately shown to be self-destructive

Ethics Reviews in Socially Engaged Arts Research

This article explores researchers’ perceptions of discrepancies between the creative goals of research projects in which artists are recruited and requirements established by ethical review boards in higher education. It describes issues that researchers typically face when applying for the ethical clearance of research projects that engage various communities in participatory activities involving creative professionals. While the observation of ethical codes of practice is very important in all academic research, it is equally important to understand how the goals of research and artistic outcomes may be affected by regulatory procedures as well as variable institutional practices related to ethical reviews of research. Ethical requirements may impact research in any discipline and are certainly not unique to the arts, but it is important to understand the specific effects of ethics review boards on research projects that venture into new creative areas that might involve vulnerable participants or include unforeseeable artistic outcomes. The article analyses studies undertaken by a research team made of academics, artists and other entities at the University of Malta and shows how the ethics review process affects timeframes, levels of participants’ involvement and the organic development of creative processes. Finally, it makes some recommendations for ethical review boards in the evaluation of socially engaged arts research projects