Young / New Graphic Art. Variables

From February 9, 2022, graduation works by three young artists and graduates of the Department of Graphic Art of Vilnius Academy of Arts Ema Alševskaja, Paulė Vaitkutė and Vaiva Frančiakaitė will be on display at Vilnius Graphic Art Centre’s Kairė-dešinė gallery. The works are installation pieces united by the concept of variables.

Variables are data values that are liable to change over time.
Variables, change, movement, mutation, volatility, fluctuations, alteration, transformation, variability, shift, recycling, conversion, interaction – these action-related terms describe the young artists’ installations Water Surface, Coordinate 55°13’31.5″N 22°53’57.3″E II and Breathing, featured in the exhibition. Each of the authors devises individual artistic research methods and tools, addresses relevant topics and problems, and employs distinctive forms of expression to spot, rethink, and make sense of variables.
In their graduation works, the authors explore cases of environmental protection, artificial intelligence, its connection with the individual, physical phenomena, and the interaction between the viewer and the work. They integrate interdisciplinary links and apply innovative science and media technologies in their creative process, while equally taking advantage of the traditional graphic art techniques and the printing and reproduction possibilities they offer. The displayed art objects urge the viewers to encounter familiar phenomena and situations observable in the natural environment in new and unconventional ways and discover the paradoxical nature of yet-unexplored domains and objects, enabling the engaged audience to consciously or unconsciously experience the entire spectrum of sensations, thoughts, and temporal change.
“Young / New Graphic Art. Variables” is the first collaborative project of Vilnius Academy of Arts and Vilnius Graphic Art Centre.

Ema Alševskaja’s interactive installation Water Surface is an ongoing project launched during the lockdown period, when galleries were forced to close or relocate to the virtual space. As an act of protest against the shutdown of galleries, the author created an easily transformable exhibition that could be installed practically anywhere – in a small room, on the facade of a building, or in a large exhibition hall.
It was not by chance that water came into the author’s view. Spending a lot of time near and in the water, the artist sees it constantly changing with the shifts in temperature, weather conditions, and daylight; the installation conveys this volatility, visualised in a simulation, every time the viewer enters its space. It is a work that calls for admiring the small everyday things. The installation is the author’s final BA project in Graphic Art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Jolanta Mikulskytė.

Ema Alševskaja. Water Surface. 2021

Paulė Vaitkutė’s installation Coordinate 55°13’31.5″N 22°53’57.3″E II is a continuation of her project Site-specific Forest 55°13’31.5″N 22°53’57.3″E. The title refers to a forested area near the young artist’s place of residence, and marks a tree with which her artistic research began.
The work reveals a personal relationship with the forest, recreated in a distinctive way. The process of artistic research frames a peculiar symbiosis of nature and the human, a regeneration of ties. With posthumanist ideas in the foreground, the work resists the notions of human exceptionalism and supremacy. A science-based study of the environment revises the links between the latter and humans, nature and culture.
This work is an amalgamation of artistic practice and philosophical reflections that offers new ways of exploring and using the forest, shapes a different experience of nature, and questions our perception of reality.
The installation is part of the author’s final MA work in Graphic Art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, supervised by Prof. Kęstutis Vasiliūnas.

Paulė Vaitkutė. Coordinate 55°13’31.5″N 22°53’57.3″E. 2021

Vaiva Frančiakaitė’s installation Breathing is a narrative with variable characters and storylines. It is created using warmth, not imaginary or apparent, but tangible – that which can be sourced and transferred from every participant of the narrative installation; that which the human radiates – as emotions, words, postures, or artworks. The role of the narrator is given over to the viewer: based on individual experience, the latter makes connections between events, characters, or emotions. The abstract movements in the work turn into hints of the viewer’s inner states. In this experiential process of viewing, bygone events and experiences become volatile – the past never ends. This generates the individual energy for modification, interpretation, and perception. The installation is the author’s final BA project in Graphic Art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Agnė Dautartaitė-Krutulė.

Vaiva Frančiakaitė. Breathing. 2021

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Curator Elena Grudzinskaitė

Organised by Vilnius Graphic Art Centre
The project is partly funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius Municipality
Partners: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuanian Artists’ Association
Media partners “7 meno dienos”, artnews.lt

Publicited 2022-02-03 14:32 | 2022, en, Exhibitions