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Dear Victoria, 2024

5 minutes, 29 seconds
Video animation

In Dear Victoria, the artist connects Britain’s colonial rule in Malta with the Mediterranean island’s obsession with religious feasts, characterised by the carrying of the statue of a patron saint around town and final return to its niche in a church. Drawings of the Queen Victoria monument in Valletta and archival footage of feasts and visits by the Royal family in Malta come together in this video to tell a strange tale about hegemonic consent under colonial rule, as well as the colonial mindset of religion and its practices. Vella’s red and pink visuals and sound design are overlaid with intimate messages directed at Victoria in her language. This ‘love letter’ to the coloniser alludes to ambivalent feelings of control and acceptance, uprootedness and the possibility of regeneration.

Shown in situ at the Malta Biennale.art in 2024 (Main Guard, Valletta)