MICAS is delighted to unveil Figure in Rods, the final work of the Maltese visionary artist Ray Pitrè. MICAS consulted closely with Pitrè on the bronze rendering of this piece and its permanent position on the museum’s campus. We are pleased that his exact wishes for its realisation and placement have been honoured, and we are only saddened that he did not live long enough to witness its inauguration. For visitors to MICAS, this poignant piece, which encapsulates an unparalleled ability to explore profound psychological and emotional themes, will be a constant reminder of and testament to Pitrè’s achievement.
Originating from a mixed media assemblage first conceived in 1969 during one of Malta’s aggressive building booms, Figure in Rods is a powerful exploration of psychological confinement. As one of the earliest Maltese exponents of Arte Povera, the art movement that originated in Italy in the 1960s, Pitrè was known for foraging on building sites, collecting discarded metal rods and scraps to repurpose into his creations. The artist frequently reflected on the entrapping nature of urbanisation, which is a highly relevant issue for contemporary society.
Featuring a solitary figure placed within a dense forest of upright rods, its presence alternately revealed and obscured as viewers move around the piece, the work exemplifies Pitrè’s deeply introspective artistic process, grounded in autobiographical memory and the liminal spaces of human experience. Through an intricate assemblage of steel rods, the artist transforms the human figure into an elusive presence that simultaneously suggests existence and absence. The upright rods stand like silent sentinels, evoking a sense of isolation and disconnection, symbolising the unseen barriers that entangle the human mind.
By manipulating negative and positive spaces, Pitrè creates a dynamic visual experience where the sculpture oscillates between materiality and ethereality. The bronze rendition allows light and shadow to play across its multi-layered, surreal dreamscape, inviting viewers to engage with complex relationships between form, perception, and psychological constraint.
Through Figure in Rods, Pitrè invites profound reflection on the fragile boundaries of identity and the struggle to find clarity amidst obscurity. The work captures intense emotional states extracted from the continuum of human experience, serving as a testament to the artist’s enduring artistic vision.
A temporary display exhibition, curated by the Washington-based Maltese art historian Joseph Paul Cassar, a leading expert on modern and contemporary Maltese art, also opens with the sculpture’s inauguration, which further interrogates the development of this concept across Pitrè’s practice.
The commissioning and permanent placement of Figure in Rods both celebrates the artistic legacy of one of Malta’s finest artists and also underlines MICAS’s mission to ensure that Malta becomes an active participant in contemporary art on the global stage, bringing Maltese art and artists into conversation with an international artistic community.
