Malta 2000
John David Mooney
John David Mooney Foundation
Invited by the Maltese Government to commemorate
the beginning of the Third Millennium with a work of art, I chose to transform
St. James Cavalier in Valletta into a metaphorical sculpture, in response
to the megalithic temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. The entrance stairway
of the Cavalier signifies the flooding of light on the Winter Solstice
into a dark megalithic interior. The large gallery at the upper end of
the stairway receives this winter sun and reveals the shape of the megalithic
stones. These stones, appropriated and placed on both the exterior fa?ade
and the roof of this former sixteenth-century munitions depot, became the
main icon of the city of Valletta by day and by night.
The layering of time is everywhere in evidence
on this Mediterranean island State, through the architecture of the temples,
the first known use of the post and lintel system, and the orientation
of the temples to the equinoxes and resulting interior illumination.
My presentation will address the nuances of the
Malta sculpture, and the marking of time from the shipwreck of St. Paul
to the present, with art based upon solar observatories.