Darkness at Noon

Darkness at Noon brings together the work of three Maltese artists: ceramist Paul Scerri, photographer Charles Balzan and painter Gabriel Buttigieg.

Darkness at the moment of noon recurs as a metaphor throughout history and literature. It is both a literal and figurative symbol for the uncanny moment of fear. Engaging with this concept each artist has created a series of works for this project.

As a tool for understanding human thought and feeling, the structure of the uncanny is a psychological mechanism which opens a point of access into a deep analysis of formative human impulses. Coming at the tail-end of the COVID-19 pandemic the works in Darkness at Noon seek to examine the primordial architecture of human consciousness by utilising the uncanny as a tool for getting into the unconscious depths which make us who we are.

Reminding us of our hidden architecture - rooted in nature, history and the architecture of survival - the work of these three artists challenges our perception of what it means to be civilised. In the uncanny eclipse of Scerri’s, Buttigieg’s and Balzan’s work the relationships we cherish and the certainties which we hold to be true are designated as symbols of the subterranean forces that shape the unfolding of our lives.

Understanding the compulsions that shape us as 21st century human creatures leads to a fuller expression of our humanity, a widened sense of empathy and conscientiousness which breaks down the walls of otherness. At its most basic, Darkness at Noon aims to underscore the common structures which unite us in a natural way by breaking down the artificially perceived barriers of essential separation, be they COVID induced or ingrained into the workings of our brains, our concepts and our society.