Islands and Cultural Translation: The Art of Joseph L. Mallia

Description “Deleuze’s island must be reinvented anew, or else it ceases to exist. That island could be Malta. It could be Senglea. It could very well be Joseph Lawrence Mallia himself.” Islands and Cultural Translation, The Art of Joseph L. Mallia delves into that creatively generative dialectic that happens between the periphery and the centre, especially when that periphery happens to be a small island situated at the very edge of Europe. How does an artist from such a place absorb, negotiate, or rise above the influences of the centre? And what of those enduring tropes surrounding the island itself: resilient, cut adrift, yet offering a space for creation and contemplation? The art of Joseph Lawrence Mallia, a Maltese artist, is here examined through these lenses. What emerges is the story of an artist who managed to transform insularity into insight.