Me in place and the place in me
Gerada has been walking the entire coastline of the Maltese islands, shown here in a collection of photographs and self-portraits. Placing her body within, around, and among the rock formations of Malta. Through simple, performative gestures — hugging the rocks, sitting with them — she expresses childlike delight and a desire not merely to be in the landscape, but to be part of it and held by it.
Variations of Emergence Residency, Malta Society of Arts, 2025
what if I collect things?
what if I collaborate?
what if I commission?
what if I curate?
what if I walk the entire coast of the islands?
what if all if Malta is my research base?
what if all my time is my practise?
what if my body is a tool?
Through Her Eyes: Redefining the Self with the Female Gaze. Talk at Valletta Design Cluster.
Soon after becoming a mother, I encountered the Mnajdra Goddess at the National Museum of Archaeology. I remember feeling awe — and a profound sense of connection. I was deeply moved by the idea that I could connect, experientially and physically, to a tiny statue made over 5,000 years ago.
Ceramics Monthly Interview: Unpredictability and Balance: The Work of Nina Gerada
Growing up in Malta in the 1980s and 90s was a creative place for Gerada. “People made and mended things,” she recalls. “My grandmother was renowned for her skill in matching color by dying fabrics. She also made and decorated wedding cakes and bridal wear. One grandfather made replica Victorian furniture, the other was a Dante expert. My father sailed in the summers and fixed his boat during the winters, and my mother sewed clothes for us.
The Goddess Project at The Malta Art Biennale 2024
Made soon after Gerada first became a mother, she made hundreds, working fast, a cathartic process after a difficult birth. It was a way of processing the artist’s frustrations with new motherhood and her evolving feminist ideas. Modern ideas of feminine beauty - as thin, young etc - are subverted for contorted spines, scars, ageing skin, breasts and bodies of all sizes - a reclamation of the body, agency and stories of womanhood.