Ona Grigaitė | But where is the fawn?
2023 11 07–12 08
When September came after summer holidays, we used to write an essay in elementary school „My best summer day“ or something similar. As I remember, the best essays were heroic – about a rescued fawn or a little bird. How dissapointing! Apparently, I have wasted my summer: I swam in the river, ran around with scratches on my knees, helped in the garden, suffered from boredom on a rainy day, but have not rescued a single fawn.
The summers were passing one after another, the rockets rose and landed, but I didn‘t manage to rescue a single fawn. Eventually the bitterness of not succeeding in a heroic act was replaced by realisation that casual, boring, and repetitive work can be none the less significant and sometimes even more important. Wanting to emphasize this relevance I invited two knitters, Aldona and Nijolė, to knit čempės – forgotten house footwear that usually was made from scrap threads or worn out and disassembled sweaters. This simple handcraft doesn‘t tell any heroic stories but reminds us of certain experiences and becomes an artefact that contains memories when placed in a gallery space.
Wanting to signify the insignificant I arranged two exhibitions like two episodes in a TV series. In the first one, which took place in Marcinkonys train station gallery, I invited visitors to wander to a village, take part in the process of knitting čempės, feel the possibility to exist slowly, and find beauty in it.
In this exhibition I mix up my cards a little and invite you to walk on a thin line – explore what kind of contracts and stereotypes we let ourselves be guided by. If knitted čempės leave the gallery and land in a market in Pilies street, do they keep their status as high art? Let‘s see.
But where is the fawn?
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Ona Grigaitė has finished ceramics studies in LSSR state art institute (now Vilnius Academy of Arts). Since 1988 participating in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. In recent years she is mostly focused on personal exhibitions. The artist is also a ceramics teacher at Justinas Vienožinskis children‘s art school.
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Opening of the exhibition will be held on the 7th of November at 6:30 PM at the VAA gallery Artifex, (Gaono str.1, Vilnius)
Meeting with the artist will be held on the 7th of December at 5 PM.
