Event: BEYOND Logic & Creativity - An Art Exhibition by Antonio Polidano Vella
Date: Saturday 19 August 2023 - Thursday 19 October 2023
Time: 18:00
Venue: Palazzo Ħamsa Mill, Providenza Street, Ħal Balzan
An Art exhibition featuring the work of Antonio Polidano Vella will launch on the 19 August (from 18:00 onwards) at Palazzo Ħamsa Mill, Providenza Street, Balzan. This event will proceed for another 2 months and will be open to the public at no entry fee but the venue will be available at selected times/days that will be updated on the website or Instagram.
3 years into a Ph.D. in cancer research, I’ve learned that cancer will potentially outsmart you and will learn how to survive in increasingly creative ways. So if you mean to defeat cancer with logic or creativity alone, you will be left many steps behind. What you need is passion that transcends into a twisted form of love towards the goal. Something that is illogical and by no means creative, but is highly impactful. You fall in love with the idea of killing cancer, only to realise that if you succeed, you will have nothing else to love. Optimism and Pessimism no longer become a choice but are equally maximised, encouraging a next step motivated by both hope and fear. A next step that might be impossible, but necessary.
THE THEME BEHIND THE ARTWORKS
These artworks will help set a necessary and practical example that both creativity and objectivity are equally relevant tools for interpreting life. But at the same time, gives credit to the unsung emotions that dictate scientific research beyond the confines of logic or arithmetic.
Artworks discussed:
- Our desire to stay connected with nature but equally, our temptation to advance our lifestyles beyond natural dependencies. Artwork: [Underneath].
- The passion for what we crave for in the future and the acceptance of the fact that we don’t have control over it. Artwork: [Next place].
- The interest in cancer research that develops into a twisted love toward eradicating disease. Artwork: [Love+Death+Cancer].
- The maximisation of optimism and pessimism that encourage a next step motivated by both hope and fear. Artwork: [Maybe].
- Accepting the reality that the universe is complicated, clashing with the desire to live simply. Artwork: [Unnamed].
ARTWORK PRODUCTION
The event being proposed takes form of a visual art exhibition, displaying original artworks aiming to give a voice to the emotions behind the stereotypically portrayed rigidity and restrained nature of scientific research. Each artwork reflects years of scientific education and research coupled with more years of creative practices.
The research and brainstorming behind each art-piece focused on capturing 3 types of truths:
- The objective truth by staying local to scientific concepts,
- The emotional truth of a researcher’s lifestyle and
- Aesthetic truths, by portraying both previous truths in a manner that is visually appealing.
The art style is primarily surrealist with a touch of chiaroscuro and a composition that whispers anode to classical art.
My portfolio has sampled many forms of media; from oils to aquarelles and acrylics and many works are expressed on a generous variety of surfaces; from wood to canvas and paper. A number of my artworks push the boundary of what is expected from a painting with the amalgamation of unorthodox materials such as; glow-in-the-dark pigment, 3D-printed shapes and gold-oil-paint.
These help embellish the theme of the painting while also giving it an unusual tangible and visual component.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Like many children, I experienced a phase where everything seemed to interest me as a career. I would think of becoming an astronaut, a train operator and a doctor on the same day. But two careers left a compelling mark on me. These were careers pertaining to the visual arts and scientific research.
I was mentored non-academically under 7 different national artists over the span of 13 years. When it comes to art (and virtually any other discipline) one tutor has what the other does not, and the vast spectrum of techniques I’ve practiced endowed me with a skill set to accomplish a generous range of projects.
I have also expressed my admiration towards the sciences by following academic education in Biology, Chemistry and Psychology (AQA) and have graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Medical Biochemistry, from the University of Malta, my alma mater.
I have been drawn towards scientific research as I am particularly fascinated by the repercussions of discovery and invention. How with the right focus, funding and cooperation, the world of research keeps pushing what we thought is achievable as a species.
I am currently in the 3rd year of a Ph.D. where I study a type of leukaemia called Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML), which is characterised by the uncontrolled multiplication of a particular type of cell in the bone marrow. CML may be controlled using drugs, however, more and more patients are becoming alarmingly resistant to these drugs.
I am working on a new treatment called combination therapy, which includes the administration of two or more drugs at the same time. The experiments I have done so far prove that combination therapy isn't only efficaciously superior to the current therapy but also has the potential to make already-resistant forms of the cancer susceptible to treatment again.
When I am out of the lab I pursue my main pastime - the visual arts. I relish painting in oils which I have been doing for the past decade, particularly while amalgamating scientific concepts in my art. It has been my pleasure and dedication to produce pieces which best describe my ideas, my research and my feelings in a medium which surpasses all language and ethnic barriers.
