EMERGING MALTESE FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER

TAKES SWIPE AT INDUSTRY IN

DEBUT SOLO EXHIBITION

As the Maltese fashion industry begins to garner momentum, so must the critical debate of fashion

photography itself. This means creating a dialogue with a type of image we are so accustomed to seeing, and

exploring more candid realities about how we consume fashion images. The work of Maltese artist

Girgorcisku (born Gregory Hili) is still relatively unknown. But Scarab – the debut solo exhibition of Imperu

Girgorcisku – will mark the advent of a local artist who has taken on board the challenge of initiating this

dialogue with fashion photography.

“Imperu Girgorcisku is my own world which acted as my escape from troubled periods of my life. These

periods controlled me in the way I feel the fashion image controls those who gaze at it”. The Central Saint

Martins graduate also feels strongly about the pressure fashion images put on today’s young boys and girls,

conforming to what he feels are out-dated conceptions of the ‘right’ way to be: “In the past, these structures

harnessed a spirit of acceptance; everyone knew their place within a grand order of society. But in a new

world where those structures have disintegrated, where we can be whoever we want to be, we have become

more competitive. Our world has changed, but our mindset hasn’t. We end up subjecting ourselves to our

own self-made structures – influenced by the conceptions of the past – in the spirit of inner anxiety and

hatred. We have become like scarabs, feeding and reproducing in our own dung spheres of ‘perfection’.”

Just as his ‘empire’ empowered the artist over his turbulent past, Girgorcisku wants to provide that same

conviction for teens and young adults struggling to cope with social pressures fashion is at least partly

responsible for enforcing. “As an image-maker, I am in a position of control over the imaginary worlds of

consumers. Therefore, I have a moral obligation to question the truth (or allusion) of that control. This is in

the spirit of a new world where no one is untouchable, where everyone – regardless of their objective status –

comes closer together, united as we reach yet another milestone in the evolution of humanity.”