Dimensions: 64.5cm x 39cm x 23cm
Date of the work: 2022
Medium: Plexiglass
Exhibition history: Prestorjha (2023)
Fragmentology is not a term associated with prehistory. Perhaps this is because prehistory is primarily made up of fragments, and the further back in time the objects come from the more fragmented they are likely to be. This relates not only to the objects themselves but also to the contexts in which they originally existed. Through fragments we are, nevertheless, able to construct possible ideas of what once was. Simultaneously, we must also recognize that fragments give rise to speculations about what was rather than any certainty.
This uncertainty is fertile ground for creativity. Tabone’s Framment, created in 2022 as part of the Prestorjha series, is the largest delicate work that the artist has produced to date. She first employed a similar technique to create Fjur and the plexiglass structure that forms part of Naked Data.
Framment is intended to give the impression of a see-through female torso. Tabone combines aspects of fragmentology with hauntology. It is the atemporal nature of the female figure that points in this direction, pushed through linguistic conditions. This is possibly why Tabone’s work frequently deploys a sprachspiel approach – without philosophical pretensions – continuously playing with languages between words and images.
Shadow work from Framment infers familiar shapes associated with Malta’s megalithic temples, without necessarily invoking the interplay between light and shadows, a signature element in many of Tabone’s works.
