No Other Mother Land: A conversation with Ann Dingli
“I left as a teenager and returned as a mother, at the threshold of middle age. It was a time of rapid change for Malta and my work struggles with this – expressing loss, hope, and the deep spiritual connection I feel for the islands.”
A conversation with writer Ann Dingli about Nina’s relationship with Malta, and her work developed over the past 20 years, shown at the Malta Biennale 2026.
Me in place and the place in me
I have been walking the coastline of the Maltese islands, placing my body within, around, and among the rock formations. Through simple, performative gestures — hugging the rocks, sitting with them — I express 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.
On the desire to become a rock
On my 40th birthday I picked up a flint pebble on a British beach because it resembled a pregnant torso. I kept the pebble on a shelf, a small sculpture created by the elements. As time passed I began developing body like sculptures that resembled rocks…
The Goddess Project at The Malta Art Biennale 2024
Made soon after I first became a mother, I made hundreds, working fast, a cathartic process after a difficult birth. It was a way of processing my frustrations with new motherhood and my 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.
maternochronics
Each one is pocket sized - yet as a group they are powerful. Representing both the multitude of experiences we collect over a lifetime, and our strength as groups and support networks.