Dust to Oil
Interview with the artist CO-MA in the studio before his exhibition titled Every Saint Has a Past & Every Saint Has a Future
… that is allure of CO-MA’s work – it leaves a lasting impression. Actually, it’s much more than an impression, it’s a mood, a feeling; his work takes you somewhere you can’t always precisely pinpoint through the written word.
Pigs.
Not coppers. Neither the hoofed mammal. But an anthropomorphic hybrid of the erect, clothed kind that sit at, and socialise, around a table, whilst engorging themselves on anything presented unto them. Because pigs, you see, will eat anything. They will crush, mince and butcher their food in a gluttonous frenzy. It is the ravenous, quasi-insatiable hunger, which is the defining characteristic here, the visible salivation, which lends itself so poetically to myriad situations that have voracious appetites as points of departure.
You couldn’t portray a more direct or on the nose picture in representation of GLUTTONY. A pictorial depiction that is heavy, weighty, meaty. Clad with connotation and reference.
The image before my eyes, speaks the same language as CO-MA’s former work, stylistically, aesthetically. Yet, in this particular work, there is no sensuous Venus-like, Renaissance-reminiscent figure. The picture plane is completely dominated by incongruously smart, cravat-wielding, pigs. Which, quite literally, hog the limelight. Try as you may, you can’t look away; you are pulled into their midst. Almost as though you could join the party and help yourself to the remnants of their unsavoury morsels. Capturing our attention, is the inclusion of reptiles and rodents within the festive spread – dead, and alive – an addition which is unclear in intent. These ‘elements’ could be merely symbolic. However, their presence could also have been drawn by hunger or scent, or by the morbid possibility that they could be sampled along with the rest of the plated hogwash.
Try as you may, you can’t look away; you are pulled into their midst. Almost as though you could join the party and help yourself to the remnants of their unsavoury morsels.
Presented with such a sight, I am easily lost in thought. Because that is allure of CO-MA’s work – it leaves a lasting impression. Actually, it’s much more than an impression, it’s a mood, a feeling; his work takes you somewhere you can’t always precisely pinpoint through the written word. Which is why I allow this regurgitation to flow through my fingers in attempt at elucidation.
Spurred by a recent studio visit ahead of an upcoming show, featuring the Seven Deadly Sins, it is perhaps the first time, that I have gleaned understanding into his method. Four large works are affixed onto various walls and surfaces. They stand upright, perfectly erect. To an untrained eye, they might seem finished or well-advanced, yet accustomed to his level of detail and definition, I realise, they are anything but. He is a fast worker, tackling several works simultaneously, perhaps a method adopted in order to ensure homogeneity – chromatically, stylistically, temperamentally.
Every Saint Has a Past And Every Sinner Has a Future – quite unsurprisingly, another mouthful of an exhibition title, yet one which is fitting in more ways. Extrapolated from Oscar Wilde’s play: A Woman of No Importance, this quote’s vessel provides a direct link between CO-MA’s previous work, and his present proposition. In his first exhibition (2021) – Black Clouds of Smoke Made the White Clouds Look Dark – I had noted how, “the body, irrespective of its outwardly beauty, is merely an object, an empty vessel. You can paint it, manipulate it, mask it. But it remains just that.” Yet Wilde’s play explores the double standards between the sexes in the Victorian era – hardly a comment on the vacuity of the human shell.
The comment here is more profound, and interestingly, it transcends time. It is clear from the ‘costume’ adorned by CO-MA’s figures, that they are placed in different tranches of time and history. His gluttons are seemingly dressed in (Victorian) period clothing; SLOTH could be an Ophelia from the Art Nouveau period, while GREED’s protagonists, seem ‘set’ against a backdrop of the 16th or 17th centuries.
This exhibition marks a distinct departure from CO-MA’s past work and exhibitions, in that he has ‘abandoned’ his predominant use of charcoal, and his proclivity for an absence of traditional colour, for the medium of oil. In fact, there is (some form of) colour seeping through his plentiful layers of complex paint – browns, greys, ochres, even. Despite the marked evolution, he employs a restricted palette, which nevertheless exudes uniformity, through its monochromatic rendering.
As I pen my ‘final’ thoughts and impressions on CO-MA’s upcoming show, I receive an image of his latest evolving piece – ENVY. Never has she looked as luscious or desirable. True, she is being ravaged by a snake, yet the omnipresent sensuality of his past work and figures, is in full vigour here. So much so, that one could easily be tempted into thinking this were a representation of LUST, which, the artist is tackling from a very dark and sinister point of view. Which makes me wonder – what could CO-MA possibly be orchestrating in representation of the culmination of desire and intensity? We can only wonder, until we may partake in his vision.
Every Saint Has a Past And Every Sinner Has a Future is curated by Lily Agius and supported by Spazju Kreattiv as part of the 2024/2025 Season Programme.
Location: Space C, Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Valletta.
Dates: 9 May to 29 June 2025. Opening event: 7 – 9pm, 9 May.
https://www.lilyagiusgallery.com/every-saint-has-a-past-every-sinner-has-a-future
