Art should be made for the future

When did you first decide to pursue the visual arts, and how did you first set about following this passion? 

I have had a passion for art in general from a very young age, starting initially with an affinity for drawing, which later developed into other media and processes. After completing my O-Levels it was a natural progression to go to MCAST and pursue a career in Fine Arts.

Julia Galea

How would you describe your experience at MCAST, and how has it affected your progress as an artist? 

I believe that my practice has progressed considerably at the MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts. Being an MCAST student has provided me with the facilities (i.e. workshops and studios) which make it possible for one to try new things, experiment and push their practice further. 

Could you speak about your contribution to ‘Leave a Mark’? How did you interpret the brief, and what do you hope to express with the work you’ve presented? 

The work produced for the Leave a Mark is a reaction to a brief which aims to drive students to find their artistic identity. My work focuses on the idea of time in space, and with this installation I aim to challenge the viewer’s perception by focusing on different interpretations of the idea of time – and how it operates in space. I have explored an unconventional relation to time – one which is directly consequential to human intervention – this is explored through the interactive nature of the work. 

With this work I aim to express my ideas on time – and how the ‘present’ is not a state in itself but a continuous flow, created from the tension between the past and the future. I believe that art should be made for the future, built from experiences and knowledge from the past, and not for the present, which invariably becomes the past by the time one has seen the artwork.  

'Untitled O' by Julia Galea