From April 19 through to May 31 Art in General (79 Walker Street, NY) features an exhibition Miss Bird by Lithuanian artists Marija and Petras Olšauskai.
“But what can I write! Such words as jets, fountains, waves, spray convey some idea of order and regularity, but here there was none . . . . It was all confusion, commotion, force, terror, glory, majesty, mystery, and even beauty. ”
Miss Bird’s impression on the Kilauea volcano.
From: Wonders of the Volcano, Ascott R. Hope, 1880
Art in General and The Gardens are pleased to present Miss Bird, an exhibition by Marija & Petras Olšauskai, on view from April 19 – May 31, 2014. This marks the fourth exhibition in a yearlong curatorial residency with The Gardens, a space for exhibitions located in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Half a year ago, Lithuanian artists and siblings Marija & Petras Olšauskai made a lamp and sent it from Vilnius to the Musée Miniscule, consequently filling the space with bluish light. This was their first presentation in Art in General and a preparation of the space for their upcoming duo show. The second part of their preparation was a trip to NYC this winter, with the intention to create a collaborative 16mm music video, which is the central piece in Miss Bird.
Filmed in different neighborhoods of NYC and documenting various performers, musicians, and passersby the artists met during their stay, this video piece constantly bounces between documentary and fiction (some of the places in the video being fictitious in themselves, such as Cloisters, a museum pieced together from the middle ages built in Upper Manhattan in 1939). The very title of the show refers to the XIX century English traveler Miss Bird, and thus links to the communication of aesthetical interaction in our surplus surroundings.
The employment and expression of beauty, as well as imperfection and deficiency, became a subject matter of Miss Bird, for which Olšauskai created an installation verging on the boundaries of increase and reduction. It is surrounded by different objects such as a grayish handmade stained glass picture on a windowsill in the sixth floor of Art in General and a slightly uncomfortable chair, specially designed for the screening of the video.
Olšauskai have set up a slippery mode that can be found in a work of physics, experimenting with innovative illumination systems, which serve best in shopping malls, making goods appear more appealing and attractive to consumers. In the case of Miss Bird, presented at Art in General, the artists operate with the light sources as well as with the expectations and movement of the visitor.
Music: Vasillus, Jokūbas, Trust
Cameraman: Ville Piippo
Curated by Gerda Paliušytė, Inesa Pavlovskaitė
Marija Olšauskaitė (b. 1989) is an artist living and working in Vilnius, Lithuania. Olšauskaitė studied sculpture at Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius. Recent exhibitions include: solo exhibition at Round Studio, Vilnius (2013); Auction, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2012); solo exhibition at The Gardens, Vilnius (2012); and Ornament, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (2012).
Petras Olšauskas (b. 1987) is an artist living and working in Vilnius, Lithuania. Olšauskas studies sculpture at Vilnius Academy of Arts. Recent group shows: Exhibition on Stage God from Machine, Vilnius (2013), and Anne, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2013).
The Gardens is a project space founded by two curators Inesa Pavlovskaitė and Gerda Paliušytė in Vilnius, Lithuania and dedicated to the practice and dissemination of Lithuanian contemporary art in Lithuania and abroad. The Gardens is mainly working with the younger generation of artists but also organizes cross-generational projects as well as programs concerts and screenings in the premises of Vilnius planetarium where it is originally located.
