The exhibition presents an imaginary cosmology, one that makes of the tablecloth a flat map of a private dystopian universe, one which started with the pop of a wine bottle rather than a bang. It is a cosmos of subversion whose inhabitants are double-headed Anubis, protectors of the departed or a whole bag of human eyeballs plucked out and served for dinner.
In Zahra's works one finds heads are often lower than the feet, a total inversion of nature. Calleja’s poetry enhances this effect with references to 'long pages of silence', 'crossword puzzles' that are impossible to solve, the 'End' as a banal term and the anti-clockwise turning of a windmill's vanes.
Zahra and Calleja come to DIXX from independent routes. Zahra started his journey in Milan when, as a personal project, he started collecting photos of 'the morning after group meals'; a whole spectrum of clutter, leftovers, spills, half empty glasses and crumbs, a collection of traces and clues that only partially tell the story of the night before. Calleja comes to DIXX after TKEĊNIR (http://tkecnir.blogspot.com/) and Axis Mundi, both projects revolving around narratives from kitchen spaces and material culture in the kitchen.
DIXX is the second collaboration between these two artists, the first being in July 2012 when together they presented the second edition of IR-RAĠEL, a book presented on the walls of a house in Bubaqra, Żurrieq.
DIXX is being presented at Capotavola restaurant in Marsascala, Malta.
More information on tkecnir.blogspot.com and www.robert-zahra.com
