XX signifies a pair of chromosomes of a female individual. It also unlocks the exhibition theme – fertility.
XO ends a message with a farewell – a kiss and a hug. Back when literacy was still rather rare, an “x” at the bottom of a document stood for a person’s signature. The written cross would then be kissed to strengthen its meaning. That is why today an “x” signifies a kiss.
A gold plated cockerel stands at the centre of the exhibition space, singing “I don’t want it anymore”. The half-eaten lollipop flashes its imperfect form, having left its sweetness and frozen dissolution.
Right next to it you can find publication Kaip atsiranda vaikai (How children appear). It is a conversation and continuation (as well as prehistory) of film The Alchemy of Letting Go that loops in a nearby room. Two sisters, an embryologist and an artist (the protagonist and the creator of the film), talk about the possibilities of human reproductive technology, about soul and seed.
The Alchemy of Letting Go is a short visual essay on reproduction. Austėja’s sister had asked her to document her medical journey at a fertility clinic in Madrid over the period of two weeks. Visual episodes of medical preparation (hormonal shots) are interlaced with encounters pursuing art and nature. The film reflects on issues of contemporary womanhood, the observation of life and attempts to control it through science and art.
As you enter the room of the video, you encounter Citrus numinosum, a white marble carpel. It is a fruit of knowledge. Citrus plants are often cultivated through self-pollination, that is, the pollen gets transferred from the blossoms of the same type of plants. Another possible feature of theirs is parthenocarpy – the formation of fruits without fertilisation. Such fruits have sterile seeds or no seeds at all.
Another face of the citrus is a floating peel figure surrounded by soft watercolours. These organic abstractions allow you to see… whatever you wish to. Or to notice organs, body parts or the plasticity of entities and their symbiosis.
‘XX.XO’
Austėja Masliukaitė
04.07 – 05.01
Curator: Kotryna Žukauskaitė
Lukiškės Prison 2.0, Lukiškių skg. 6,Vilnius, Lithuania
Photography: Austėja Masliukaitė
