Algis Lankelis

Light, 2001

Interdependence, 2001

In opposite corners of the wavering structure of electric wires, two functioning electric fans are installed The stream of air emitted is visually emphasised by the lay aut wires. The optic illusion of waves does not always coincide with the actual direction taken by the electricity throughout the system.

Communicating Vessels, 1996

Blue clouds, 1999

The glass covers of a surgical overhead lighting complex are replaced with mirrors.

A series of slide projections of clouds are reflected of the lights mirrors and onto an

operating table below. Around the room are a series of photographs associating landscape and the human body.

These are illuminated by anglepoise lamps.

Barrier, 1994, wood

House, 1989, wood

Art Critic on…

There are several distinct stages in Lackelis’s oeuvre. The plastic forms of his early expressionist object-based works were an original development of the associative metaphorical quality and expressiveness of material legitimized in modern Soviet Lithuanian sculpture by middle-generation sculptors like Mindaugas Navakas and Urbanavičius. Gradually, the semantic and plastic form of Lankelis’s work changed as the artist introduced new motifs into it. The focus on objects gave way to associative images combining the plastic expression of states, signs and abstract concepts. Generalized, minimized, “manufactured“ volume replaces the expressive form of the early works. Lankelis takes interest in universal archetypal notion and strives to summarize the humanist experience of Western and Eastern cultures. The artist’s practical engagement with Zen philosophy and meditation becomes important in this process. This enables him to identify, associatively, the problems of human existence on the level of abstact and minimalist rather than figurative imagery.

(…) Lankelis’s turn to conceptualism is twofold. Having rejected traditional sculptural form and individually conceptualizing Duchamp’s ready made, he creates objects and installations. In addition, he experiments with montage of colour photographs that he began taking in Switzerland. Lankelis employs different means of expression, but the themes he explores remain the same. The problem of human existence is still the focal point of his work. Unlike today’s young artists, who focus on naturalistic problems of social existence and fetishize new technologies, Lankelis’s lyrical character (fragments of the author’s self-portrait can be traced in his photographic compositions and installations) stays in the domain of universal spiritual states, humanist culture and nature.

 Elona Lubytė

Keywords: sculpture, installation, site specific art project

Favourite places: many places of Neris riverbank between Verkiai and Kernavė