Stefanija Paukštytė and Uršulė Baužaitė
Vilnius Art Academy, Ceramics Dept., Vilnius, Lithuania
BA Head – Lecturer Jurgita Jasinskaitė.
DISSERTATION DEFENSE: May 29, 10.40AM,
Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.
Stefanija Paukštytė
(Providing) Belief
My work is based on the legend about Saint Agatha that has been variously interpreted.
There was always fire or lava and, in all ofthe recountings, there was talk of apowerful belief that helped Agatha to bear her suffering as well as the slicing off of her sacred breasts. When the legend is transferred to a more abstract form of visualization and removed from the context of the church, there is more room for interpretation. The breast is something that is often objectivized in contemporary society, undervalued, perceived as something not quite moral – and here we see a true symbol of strength, will and faith.
Uršulė Baužaitė
round and round, but always forward
I have deliberately chosen to talk about mythological consciousness through objects that correlate with today’s technology, rather than symbols. The formula for antique porcelain uses the ashes of bones run through a printer with the very newest ceramic device, but the human touch is almost gone. I’m not looking for contemporary symbolism, because I think that it would be too narrow in terms of the collective subconsciousness and the scale of cultural history. I would rather choose to portray undefined abstracts, scanned things from nature, objects that are simply programmed to be projected, but I also invite you and allow
everyone to let the creative research process get into their subconsciousness to allow for the reading of symbols personally and subjectively.