George Dalli

My practice concerns itself with trying to depict the strange, the unsettling, the eerie, the uncanny, that which is repressed, which lives in the subconscious, but inevitably escapes from our control and manifests itself in the way we feel, we react, when presented with  situations or settings removed from the comforting familiarity of everyday life.

Many of my sculptures aim to create a sense of unease in the viewer.  They are visceral, both in form and content, and attempt to induce sensations which are not easily defined, perhaps because they are planted in the psyche before speech is learnt or conscious thoughts have started to form . On occasion, I also refer to the content of fairy tales, which themselves were ways of inculcating morality in the young and used strong and disturbing imagery to drive their point home .

Other areas of interest are expressed in my photographs, and most recently in my paintings. Through these media, I am keen to explore the feelings aroused by finding oneself in desolate places or settings which carry evidence of past human presence.

Lastly, the Forest has a strong resonance for me, it has always caused a sense of primeval fear in humans and is at the root of many pagan religions. Apart from the pictorial element contained in the verticals of tree trunks and the sinuous shapes of branches and roots, It is the sense of mystery, of fear and of the supernatural which it induces in most people, which draws me to the subject.

For my paintings, I rely mostly on my own photographs of such settings, but also on films stills, sometimes unaltered, sometimes edited to suit my own narrative. I find the cinema an ideal medium to draw inspiration from, as it offers a doorway to strange worlds and situations not commonly experienced.