13/6/– 24/6/2022 | VAA Department of Graphic Art, Final MA project
Laura Marija Šalkauskienė | Emptiness, Expelled Thoughts
Supervisors | Prof. Rimvydas Kepežinskas, dr. Jurgita Ludavičienė
Exploring the subject of emptiness has become a process of self-experimentation and a kind of game for me: will I not be tormented in the areas of feeling and searching for emptiness, what will I answer for myself and what will I rediscover? According to J. Huizingas, the game is beyond the realm of intelligent practical life, beyond the realm of necessity and benefit”.
Growing up in a lost generation with a key from home hanging on a rope on my neck, with strawberries on a bent, buried ‘sekretai’, without jeans, hanging on the courtyard globes – climbing structures, in "small courtyard sculptures" – rockets that stink of urine, carbonated drinks from vending machines... Growing up in a time of deficit you value other, not material things. And it follows in the course of the rest of your life, because that was your world. The romanticization of the past captures only good memories. In today’s life, I miss that simplicity, without pathos, greatness, or self-proclamation. The theme of emptiness, therefore, becomes a metaphor for objectlessness for me as opposed to today’s world of surplus and oversaturation. I want to show the meaningless multi-objectness, the “rubbish castle,” that rises daily in the landfills from our belongings and becomes the face of our daily lives. Do we really need that much? We admire the abundance in which we lose ourselves...
The exhibition features works performed with different graphic techniques (etching, mezzotint and author’s). There is also the author's sculpture-object. In my creative work, I reveal the energy of excess. I use the method of opposition - I reveal emptiness by depicting saturation. Meshing graphic techniques I exhibit the signs of minimalism in the background of a mezzotint. The velvety black tones and defaults of the mezzotint reveal the depth of the subject, the indescribable signs of infinity. By intaglio I inscribe the physical processes of energy interchange that take space in a vacuum. Sculpture is an object as an extension of graphic works in 3D space.
VAA gallery Artifex, Gaono str. 1, Vilnius
Defense on the 13th of June at ~ 2:30 PM.
The exhibition is open to visitors from the 14th of June from 12 PM.
Opening of the exhibition will be held on the 14th of June at 6 PM.
This exhibition is also part of the „Kultūros naktis“ program. On June 17th the gallery will be open until 10 PM.
