Bjuda

Bjuda - whiteness

or white on white

this exhibition was quite special to me because of its uniqueness - even though this is not a new topic it is still a very fresh perspective on white, on shades of white

what is white to you?

or what does this colour mean to you?

Before even entering this beautifully curated exhibition I knew - this is what we need more of on this little island!

white can be many things - it can be something, but it can also be nothing. To me if feels like an experience which cannot be other, yet which is, Other

the exhibition

we are met with an intentional merging of the arts - here verse, photography and music come together so naturally that one enters knowing that it couldn’t have been set any other way. The notion of creating sound, creating meaning through sound from a colour is quite fascinating, very reminiscent of Chiarra Luzzana’s work - if you had to pause right now,

what does white sound like to you?

what does white remind you of?

Leanne, Giola and Kenneth ask you as a spectator to use all your senses, to be inspired; yet it doesn’t stop there - you are not given the answer, because you cannot be. You are the creator of your own bjuda, so as you walk through the rawly framed rooms you are asked gently to re-turn with-in to find what bjuda means to you

the open rooms lent themselves to the feeling and the creation of bjuda, especially as the smoke starts to take over - coming and going in waves

the book

a beautiful and thoughtful container for all that Bjuda is to the artists was collected in the form of a book held together, yet which easily comes apart. This book also felt like a natural progression - the exhibition leaving you wanting (much) more

this packaging, the very layout allow the reader the freedom to experiment, to create which the artists encourage from the very beginning. The transparencies creating layers (of meaning), the folded sheets creating paper chasms and ranges - all playfully lend a hand in creating new realities, burying others, and opening up to new imaginings

the transparent envelope with not just a couple, but 6 postcards has to be my favourite element - as i know they will follow me into other readings and thus i will always carry a piece of bjuda with me

the content

we are asked to search for the white traces - that which is and is not; that which once was, now is not, yet will come again

from the start there was this realization that I was dealing with something which created contrast, yet which didn’t need them to exist. Perhaps this is something which sounds and feels different when written, which loses its power, yet it’s something I’ve been drawn to thinking about - can white be compared to truth? can white exist happily without its opposite (black)? do they need each other, create each other? perhaps this thread, this line of thought doesn’t work with colours, but then perhaps it is simply very personal. . .let’s leave this as a trace for another day

white is white, it is, as Leanne notes, all around us - it is inescapable and it is the start, the base of many elements in life. Bjuda speaks to me of vastness, space and possibility. white of the pure blooms of lily of the valley, paper white narcissus and delicate snowdrops. white simplicity and sophistication - breathing life into the notion that less is truly more

possibilities abound from the form of the exhibition and book, all rooted in the poetry and the photographs, but in focusing in on the verse possibility is found in the malleability of meaning, in the offering of two titles for each poem, in the reading and re-reading, in the imagining and re-imagining

as Leanne rightly mentions, colours are not just colours - there is a power in the way they can create a mood, evoke emotions, imply meaning and even become symbolic - in the blink of an eye the meaning of bjuda changes

there is space for a white that is whiter than white, making us question

what is our essence?

what is our essential self?

at this level, white is no longer a colour (the colour of paper, the colour of skin) it is actualized into meaning, into its own purest self. I believe that the process of confronting the colour really does require us to look deeply and patiently; to look through at our shadow self to be able to move towards our bjuda

there was something very special about reading the poems in their root form, in Maltese, and then at times shifting to the English version for a few verses, then back again (there’s a sense of turn and re-turn here too). making the English version available is in itself a possibility (that we might take for granted, especially being bi-lingual) created by space, created by acknowledging different realities

there is something magnetic about Leanne’s verse, full of meaning and feeling. this to me is the power of language, when done in such a way that it stops you, it grabs you and without knowing it you’re there under its spell. there is also something very raw about reading in Maltese, Leanne plays with the words, with the reader, plays games on the mind

these poems speak of peace and calm, of sadness - saudade

these poems hold space for pain - living within, between the words and verse

these poems are vulnerable and strong

these poems are reflecting and absorbing, sensual and sexual, sacred and sensory, life, death and rebirth, infinite and temporal, liminal and defined, memory and maddening silence, difference and similarity, understanding and the beauty of knowing through experience

bjuda

we are swimming in a moonmilk sea in search of our own

Details

Leanne Ellul - author

Giola Cassar - photographer

Kenneth Sacco - musician

Zvezdan Reljić - design

Elyse Tonna - curator

Bjuda - an exhibition