Blitz presented the first major solo exhibition by Maltese artist Kane Cali. Human_Construct is both a research project and exhibition, delving into notions of identity. The works invite the viewer to take a step back and reflect on our identity as a social species, both in tangible human form and as a construction of ephemeral data.

We live in an era that is data-hungry; where interactions between individuals are monitored and numerically quantified. These interactions are ultimately reduced to a transfer of code between machines, with relationships built on data and customizable beyond the realm of reality. In Human_Construct Cali (re)creates an experience where our current existence faces questionable truths, within a space littered with data aggregated through our parallel, virtual existence(s).

By adopting a techno-utopian premise – one that suggests advances in science and technology might be a means to the understanding of social differences – the work returns our gaze with futuristic perspectives. This vision presents the body as no longer being a vessel for the soul, but rather a structure of tightly compiled systems. This is the introduction of the body as an engine; a sum of parts each discernible and dissectible.

Human_Construct is the culmination of two years’ research, combining these ideas with new and old technologies, beautifully raw and tactile materials, and holographic projection. Through a very personal process, which has led to the development of his own visual language, Cali has created a body of work that he describes as an ‘objective outcome’. The works at Blitz included busts cast in concrete and created through a process of digital scanning and printing. Ceramic objects are slip cast, while glass objects are created through lost wax casting. Marble and concrete relief works come from a collaboration with Reuben Lautier, and collaboration with FabLab Valletta is a hologram – a work created purely from light.