Homebound

Homebound presents a series of paintings and prints by Anna Calleja that examine the domestic space as both sanctuary and site of confinement. Created following her return to Malta at the onset of the pandemic, the works address the duality of home as a place of comfort and the site of radical vulnerability. Calleja depicts family members, interiors, and objects laden with private histories, positioning them within broader reflections on isolation, connection, and uncertainty. Sleeping figures and animals evoke a suspended state between past and future, while the intrusion of phone screens and video calls points to the paradox of digital intimacy - at once connecting distant places and underscoring separation. Grounded in figuration and traditional media, the works juxtapose the tactile and handmade with the immateriality of the virtual. References to art history and childhood narratives are reframed to question how familiar symbols of safety and belonging operate in a moment of global instability. Through Homebound, Calleja captures the shifting role of the domestic during the pandemic, reflecting on how private and collective experiences of home became central to negotiating an anxious and uncertain present.