Jade Zammit’s debut solo ‘Paradise Lost’ confronts fragility of real and imagined paradise

Paradise Lost marks the debut solo exhibition of Jade Zammit, a personal exploratory journey in which Zammit confronts the fragility of paradise – both real and imagined – that are perpetually “hanging by a thread”.

How do these paradises unravel over time? What remains when the thread finally snaps, and the utopian visions dissolve into disillusionment? Zammit’s works vary not just in form, but in their thematic undertones, reflecting the multifaceted nature of paradise itself, a concept as fragile as it is alluring.

Drawing upon the romanticised portrayals of non-European cultures, Zammit uses the Gobelin tapestries housed in Valletta’s Grand Master’s Palace as a foundational reference. These 17th-century masterpieces, initially commissioned to evoke awe, mystery, and wonder, are reinterpreted through Zammit’s contemporary lens.

Inspired by the idyllic yet ultimately disillusioning scenes in Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian series and the decaying world of colonial Africa as depicted in Ben Okri’s The Famished Road, Zammit’s work weaves together threads of personal memory with broader themes of a deteriorating paradise.

Zammit’s work delves into the discomfort associated with the loss of the natural world, a paradise that, like the tapestries she references, is both beautiful and precarious. Through an almost imaginary perspective, she evokes a deep sense of nostalgia, compelling her viewers to reflect on the fragility of both personal and collective histories. How do we reconcile the idyllic pasts – whether personal or cultural – that have fragmented into unsettling realities?

Viewers are invited to journey through this exploration with Zammit, reflecting on her perceptions of paradise, and ask whether they too are holding on to something that is hanging by a thread, and perhaps come to terms with the inevitable losses.

Her first debut solo show Paradise Lost will take place at the Malta Society of Arts, Valletta from 3 to 25 October, featuring a new body of work developed through an exploratory journey as Jade confronts the fragility of paradise both real and imagined.

Zammit, born 1990, is a Maltese visual artist specialising in drawing and painting. She earned her degree in Architecture from the University of Malta. Zammit’s work is deeply inspired by nostalgia and personal moments, favouring intimate themes over grand, monumental events. Recently, her work has taken a multidisciplinary approach weaving stories rooted in sentimentality, inviting the viewers to connect with the past.

In October 2021, Zammit was awarded a Professional Development Grant by the Arts Council Malta, which funded her first artistic residency at R.A.R.O. Barcelona in Spain. During this residency, she created a body of work that was curated by SPRING v2.3, a program hosted by the Gabriel Caruana Foundation to support emerging artists. Since 2020, Zammit has participated in numerous collective exhibitions, establishing herself as an emerging artist in the local art scene.