The Second Coming – Vince Briffa

 

 

Signs of Revelation

 

 

 

se koúnia

 

 

 

 

 

Titles:  

From The Second Coming  Series:

Signs of Revelation   (91.5 x 122cm)

se koúnia   (180 x 180cm)

 

Materials:  

Signs of Revelation: Oils and mixed-media on panel

se koúnia: Oils and mixed-media on canvas 

 

Description:

Signs of Revelation uses a series of marks/markers in the ground, which, from both a genre and an aesthetic perspective offset the abstract qualities of the work and point it towards figuration. These marks, markers or vertical slits, puncture and penetrate the work itself, acting as harbingers to an unknown event and delineating the space of the work as the receptor of this happening. The work is suspended between the spiritual barrenness of silence and the charged anxiety of anticipation.

se koúnia (in cradle) is located between abstraction and figuration. The work makes reference to the double meaning of the title, as being in the cradle of birth, and the implied, playful rocking of a swing; contradictorily represented by the stillness of the three swinglike objects that in a zenlike fashion suspend in the meditative barrenness of the encrustated paint. The spurts and gushes of the paint on the canvas itself are symbolic of pre-natal activity, while the stationary triad, which defy motion, point towards a time when all action has stopped, when all life has been truncated. Once again, this work is suspended between the spiritual barrenness of stillness and the charged anxiety of anticipation.

 

Bio:

Vince Briffa is an artist, curator and academic. Exhibitions include Venice Biennale, 1999 & 2019; Pierides Museum, Cyprus; Palais des Nations, Switzerland; Museum of Modern Art, Liechtenstein; Casoria Museum, Naples; Villa Manin Contemporary Art, Italy; MAC, Argentina; Palais Liechtenstein, Austria; The Museum of Fine Arts, Romania and the Museum of Modern Art, Israel. Commissioned projects at the Cork 2005, Pafos 2017, Valletta 2018 and Leeuwarden-Friesland 2018, European Capitals of Culture. His work forms part of numerous private and public collections. 

www.vincebriffa.com

instagram.com/vincebriffa

 

Author

  • Karen is finishing a PhD program in the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts after careers in corporate management, consulting, and pastoral and theatre ministry. She explores theological and theatrical contexts of ’empty space’ and general human disposition toward it, with emphasis on improvisation (specifically Playback Theatre) and Holy Saturday. Since 2017, Karen has led or advised ITIA’s Transept group, a postgraduate-led group of multidisciplinary practicing artists. Karen was an editor for Transpositions from 2017 to 2022. As Editor-in-Chief, she fostered a closer partnership between Transpositions and Transept, hosted the In/break exhibition on the Transpositions site, and introduced regular series into the publishing schedule.