OBJECTS AND INSTALLATIONS

In the Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia, an object is defined as “a thing in the material world, appropriated from nature or created in the process of production…”.

Objects created through production processes have, in one way or another, a utilitarian purpose related to their intended use and function. Yet an object is more than a set of functions, and our relationship with objects varies. The same tool is perceived differently by a professional who uses it every day and by someone who encounters it only occasionally, or who merely knows that such a tool exists.

A person entering a scientist’s laboratory for the first time might see nothing more than a collection of strange objects, perhaps visually intriguing, but this interest has little in common with the scientist’s relationship to an object used as a specific instrument for scientific discovery. Yet such an object, as a piece of laboratory equipment, may have an equivalent among familiar domestic appliances—for example, a laboratory centrifuge and the drum of a washing machine.

Mass-produced objects often have a “representational” side, through which they are identified, and another, less visible side, turned towards the floor, wall or ceiling. The latter is usually dominated by the object’s functional features—wires, legs and ventilation openings.

Although objects in space are described using a three-dimensional system, our visual perception of the world is inevitably projected onto a flat plane. It is generally difficult to perceive both the front of an object and what lies hidden behind its visible, “representational” surface at the same time.

Transferring the image of an object onto transparent planes seems to eliminate the distinction between its representational and rear sides, allowing the object to be viewed from all sides simultaneously and transposing it into the realm of ideas. The theory of the object as an idea is put to the test through experimentation with manifestations of the material world, by incorporating fragments of the objects themselves or playing with abstract forms.

Exhibition curator: Aistė Kisarauskaitė

Exhibition architect: Aistė Kisarauskaitė

Photography: Domas Rimeika