KaneCali Studio
OBSERVATORY (public sculpture)
Observatories have long been revered as sanctuaries of discovery, housing colossal lenses that map the heavens and unravel the mysteries of the cosmos. Standing within the ancient neolithic temples of Malta feels like being in an observatory of the ancients. Connected to the divine, the vastness of the dark sky seems to swallow us in endless opportunity.
Sculptor and artist Kane Cali hails from Malta, where the connection with the celestial is strong. His practice sits between the tactile and the digital, and in a recent public art commission from Infrastructure Malta he has embedded the public consciousness of these temples within an observatory for the digital age.
‘Observatory’ is inspired by nature but confronts the man-made. It is as much about the primitive gaze upwards as it is about the bright light that his phone lights up with interrupting anything that we are doing. In a time characterised by speed and where attention spans are in competition with so many impulses, his work seems to freeze a moment in the human condition.
A 4-metre artwork, made in cast stainless steel and hand polished to a mirror finish, the artwork is amongst the largest sculptures he has made. It stands firm, but is porous. It at once emulates the raw roots of a tree, and also the technological images of neurons in the brain. As one stands in it they quite literally enter the mind of another.
Planned to be taken over by an infiltrating, wild garden of Mediterranean Jasmine, ‘Observatory’ is an expression of how interconnected our world is. The inputs and impulses not only affect us, but make us. Its envelop will afford its transformation. Kane Cali understands the monumental. His work is a return to big questions that have intrigued societies since time immemorial. Malta, as a cradle for civilizations and culture, is and has been at the heart of this evolution.
“Observatory” has a timeless quality to it. It breathes as it stands strangled by its context. The profile of its subject is both penetrated and penetrating and its hollow gaze both solemnly human but also divinely inspired.
LOCATION - LUQA JUNCTION
LIGHTING
ENGINEERING
