This work is part of the collective exhibition ART INTERRUPTED, held at il-Kamra ta' Fuq from the 19th of March to the 17th of April 2022.   

 

The Dagger series attempts to take away the ‘weaponness’ from the object by protruding prongs from the handle, this, in a practical aspect renders useless the stabbing device. A continuation of the theme and study of ‘anti-interactivity’ within the sculptural realm.

‘Dagger (My last/latest work)’ deals with the notion of an unfinished artwork and the contradicting notions it brings with it. The unfinished work has a direct correlation to mortality and the artists’ practice. A truly unfinished piece is one where its completion has been halted for some abrupt reason, the progress has been stopped and the artist has no ‘authority’ to present it to the world as a ‘finished’ piece. The paradox is that an artist could never claim to have produced an unfinished work once he/she takes it out of the proverbial studio. If the work is let out into the world by the artist, it has inherently met some form of standards abiding to the maker’s vision.

Therefore, what Bezzina presents is an attempt at making the artists and viewers reconsider the term ‘unfinished’ by giving the opportunity of a future owner of the piece to have agency in the completion of the piece. The object is released in the world pertaining all its counterparts and only the new owner of the piece has the ability to ‘finish’ it.