Command_Expo, 2023

Painting triptych – oil, acrylic, ink on canvas, prints, video projection

New technological representation processes undoubtedly have an impact on cultural consciousness and subconsciousness. To some extent, we become what we constantly observe, so with the emergence of the “scrolling” art, now everyone can be the creators of their own virtual reality. Digital processes have greatly influenced the materiality of painting, affecting and reconsidering its technologization and shaping visual “fashions” and tendencies. Painting, so to speak, frees itself from traditional constraints, becomes capable of breaking free from two-dimensional limitations, and rethinks itself.

“Command_Expo” intentionally blurs the boundaries between digital and painted image, examining and exploring their methods of creation, their shared characteristics, and how they essentially differ or intersect. This encourages a broader exploration of the definition of painting, including what can and cannot be considered part of the medium, while simultaneously recognizing its unique qualities. The artwork raises questions of ambivalence regarding the role of error and randomness, as well as issues of intimacy and anonymity, and the impact of proximity and distance on the viewer’s perception. By identifying the surfaces of these different media, it is hoped to create an unexpected, boundary-pushing, painting installation suspended between painting and digitalization.

The artwork “Command_Expo” contemplates elements of cyber culture – video game avatars, computer-generated textures, visual references to computer program functions, and reevaluates the circumstances of digital image viewing. Throughout the entire wall area and along the edges of the paintings, a white-grey grid, borrowed from computer video editing programs, is visible, implying the absence of a visual background. Positioned along the edges of the canvas, it extends the narrative of the painting beyond the physical frame or indicates that it functions independently from the surrounding environment, in its own intermediary painting space. This symbolic background becomes a “desktop” for the painting installation that drifts within it. [Translation source: ChatGPT. The provided text was translated from Lithuanian to English.] 2023 07 04 / 08 31 LTQ’23: Communities | 5th Lithuanian Contemporary Art Quadrennial, Gallery ”Arka” Vilnius