2024 The Crossings

“The Crossings continues my ongoing dialogue about migration, war and climate change. I use scavenged, burnt charcoal I have found washed up on the beach near my studio, hand-crushed and then mixed with sumi ink. This blackened debris is a metaphor for the many deaths of migrants on boats overturning at sea, in a tragedy that is repeated daily.

The Cross (and the Crucifixion) has been a recurring element in my work as both a religious theme and a maritime symbol. Over the years, it has evolved to express my belief, concern and outrage, very much like my using ‘The F-word’ as both a celebration and an expletive of anger and frustration.”

In The Crossings, Azzopardi maps out her world using bold symbolism, spiritual allegory and poetic rendering. Graphic markings can be interpreted as fences dividing fields in a monochrome landscape, with white lines painted on asphalt. Her legible phrases and unreadable scrawl can be seen as simultaneously providing a message and whispering an incantation.

In Azzopardi’s growing series, as well as mirroring the iconography of the Crucifixion, the Cross becomes an intersection, a stop sign, a border crossing and a symbol signifying a place for hope and prayer. Each new work can be seen as an excavation and an obliteration, a territory of masking and revealing. The paint is smeared on, and washed away. With a nod to romanticism, the cross also references the swash-buckling tradition of how “X marks the spot” on a pirate’s map, indicating where the treasure is buried.

Jonathan Turner

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XXI, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame – SOLD

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XV, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XLII, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XXXIX, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XLI, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XXXIII, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XX, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing XI, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossing X, 2024, mixed media on Fabriano paper, 56 x 76cm + mount & frame

Maree Azzopardi, Fair Winds & Following Seas # 2, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 61 x 61cm – RESERVED

Maree Azzopardi, Fair Winds & Following Seas # 3, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 61 x 61cm

Maree Azzopardi, Fair Winds & Following Seas # 4, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 61 x 61cm

Maree Azzopardi, Fair Winds & Following Seas # 7, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 61 x 61cm

Maree Azzopardi, Fair Winds & Following Seas # 5, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 61 x 61cm

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossings – Be My Embrace # 1, 2024, dark matter mid fired clay & ceramic pencil, 22 x 23cm

Maree Azzopardi, The Crossings – Be My Embrace # 2, 2024, dark matter mid fired clay & ceramic pencil, 19 x 23cm

Maree Azzopardi, Intersection # 1, 2024, sumi ink on Winslow water colour paper, 10 x 14cm + mount & frame

There are 8 ‘Intersection’ works available. The image right, is an example.