Leftovers
Vilnius Academy of Arts
Supervisors: assoc. prof. B. Zdramytė, asst. B. Staškauskas
“Leftovers” is a series of objects made of biological human relicts, which detach naturally from the body. The title encompasses hair (cut off or fallen out), milk teeth, old, naturally peeling skin and cut off nails. These works are inspired by the style of Victorian epoch and the similar use of human relicts in contemporary art and jewellery. It seems ironic that in the present world we perceive beauty or even luxury in leather, fur, horns or animal teeth, but cannot grasp attraction to human relicts, finding them to be ugly and repulsive. In “Powers of horror” Julia Kristeva defines the state of repulsion with the self and the environment as abjection, and describes the abject as a substance or phenomenon which is an intimately connected and, simultaneously, completely alien part of the object. Looking at these artefacts we recognize them as part of ourselves, but want to reject this notion, led by our aesthetic views. These objects allowed me to become a sort of a mirror, reflecting the absurdity of the moment when a single action, a detachment, radically alters our understanding of the material. “Leftovers” are objects which reveal a gap in our thinking: the grounding of nausea in emotions and not logic. With this series I intend to approach the viewer gently and aesthetically, whispering in their ear: that which is a little strange might actually be very familiar – you may just need to approach it from another angle.