A cat the size of a small car, painted in loud colours, sits in a garden by the sea. For people walking Sliema’s seafront it is hard to miss and easy to enjoy, which is more or less the point of public sculpture.
What it is
The Cat Statue is a colourful, oversized sculpture standing in Independence Garden, beside Tower Road in Sliema. It was created by the sculptor Matthew Pandolfino and placed in the garden during the Sliema Art Festival. Public art of this kind is meant to sit among ordinary life: dog walkers, joggers, people eating ice cream on the benches. The cat does that well, with a pose and a palette that make it a natural photograph.
The source material on the statue is brief, and what is known is the maker and the occasion. Beyond that, it is best treated as what it looks like: a playful piece in a promenade garden, not a monument with a long story behind it.
The setting
Independence Garden is a small green space on the seafront, and its main job is to give the promenade some shade and somewhere to pause. The setting is typical of Sliema. Across the water you can see Valletta’s bastions, the domes and the harbour traffic. Behind you are apartment blocks and the shopping streets that make Sliema the busiest modern town on the island.
Cats suit Malta well. They are everywhere, living around fortifications, gardens and harbour walls, and many locals feed them. A cat sculpture on the seafront is a good-humoured echo of that.
Walking the promenade
The statue is best seen as one stop in a longer stroll. From the ferry landing, which is a few minutes away, the promenade runs along the rocky coast past cafés, ice-cream kiosks and low platforms where people swim and sunbathe. Walk in the direction of the De Redin towers and the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the cat appears in the garden along the way.
Further on, the promenade carries on towards St Julian’s. The Love Monument at Spinola Bay is the next sculpture you meet, so a small “public art walk” is possible within an hour or two.
Best time to go
Early morning is the quietest, with joggers and cafés opening. Late afternoon has gentler light for photographs. At midday in summer the promenade has little shade, so a hat and water matter.
On a warm evening the whole seafront fills with families and walkers, and the cat becomes a backdrop to many photographs. If you want the statue to yourself, go early.
Why a stop like this is worth making
Sliema is not a town of ancient monuments. Its character comes from the 19th and 20th centuries, from the seafront apartments, the ferries and the shops, and a piece of art in a garden fits that character more than a plaque would. Anyone who has spent the morning in Valletta’s museums may find an easy, open-air stop welcome. It costs nothing, needs no ticket and asks for no knowledge.
It also helps to look at the sculpture as a sign of how the town uses public space. Festivals bring temporary and permanent works into gardens and squares, and the cat is one that stayed for people to find. If a different installation has appeared nearby since, treat it as part of the same walk.
For a small challenge, try to photograph the cat with Valletta’s skyline behind it. The angle is not obvious and depends on where you stand in the garden; it takes a few attempts, and the results are the kind of picture that shows both the sculpture and the harbour in one frame.
Practical points
The garden is open and free to enter. The pavement is flat, so pushchairs and wheelchairs manage it without trouble, though crossing Tower Road needs care at busy hours. Benches and nearby cafés make it easy to sit down. There is no need to plan for it: the statue costs nothing and takes minutes.
Combining the stop
For a short outing, add Sliema beach, a coffee on the front and a ride on the Valletta ferry back across the harbour. For a longer day, continue along the coast to Balluta Bay and Spinola Bay in St Julian’s, and finish with dinner by the water.
Take a camera or phone, and stand at an angle that includes the sea behind the cat. The harbour view adds more to the photograph than the statue alone.
