Barilaitė Jurga
Slightly, 2013, video and drawings. Space Flight, 2013, reconstruction of a childhood performance, video & sound, 48 s
A chair lifted up slightly above the ground, supporting family, girlfriends squatting down, blindfolded eyes, lost balance and newly found relation.
Taken Captive by Image, or Sunset in Laisvės Avenue, 2012, performance
7 Green Screens, or What Would I Do If I Do, 2010, 7 canvases, video & sound
Green screen is used in advertising and film to create montage scenes. Bright green is easy to cut out and replace with another image. Seven green screens stand for seven possibilities to cut out and replace. The sequence is as follows: 3×4; 9×12; 15×20; 30×40; 60×80; 90×120; 120×160… The green is so damn beautiful.
It’s okay, 2009, video & sound, 8 min, loop
The video is projected on a white paper sheet torn out of a drawing-block. The film consists of four videos filmed on the outer edges of Europe. A woman’s face, eyes swimming with tears, and a phrase repeated over and over: ‘It’s okay’. The work is created as a purification ritual in the face of creative crisis.
Tears, 2008-2009, 4 videos, 2 min each
Four short video close ups of a crying woman (the artist herself). All four videos were filmed on the outer edges of Europe – at the most remote geographical locations. The Tears here are tears of artistic crisis. The clichéd interpretation of tears as womanish cry used to act and to defend oneself is also possible. It might be as well tears, mourning the fate of the world or Europe experiencing the crisis of ideas. The act of crying itself, as the supreme emotion, is a paradox. It is an act of purification and therapy, which as well stands for a stereotype of woman.
Little José and Other Stories, 2007, video installation: Little José, DVD, 11 min; Little José / A Box, DVD, 7 min, projection in a box; Another Story, DVD, 3 min
The author ascribes this audiovisual installation to the genre of ‘moving pictures’. The real here gets entangled with dreams and fantasies: fiction seizes reality and fictitious characters become real. Three short video narratives create a mysterious crime story atmosphere. Besides that, it is a very personal story about the artist herself and her male ‘muse – Little José’; a video projection in a box, where the restless little man cleans a canvas; the author standing on a hill; an eye looking down at the city through a rip in a terrorist mask, yet again reflecting the same story about the power of imagination, creative satisfaction and reconciliation with oneself.
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, 2004, video, 5 min
The author dressed in black is dancing in front of her family car. The car is not too new, neither the model is posh, but due to the affordable price and reliability it is the most sought-after car model in Lithuania. The video deconstructs the myth of the car as a symbol of wellness, power and sexiness, simultaneously revealing a certain eroticism of consuming.
Storm in a Glass, 2003, video projection on a glass of milk, 7 min, loop
A video of a woman (the author herself) drowning or desperately trying to keep on the top, projected on the surface of milk in a glass. Signs of human fragility and everyday routine in the daily environment.
The Defence of Necessity, 2001, video, 18 min
A box match between the author and a giant black canvas hanging on a wall. The aggressive attack on painting and architecture (the wall) is in fact a defence against hierarchic order and canonical thought. The womanly response to the freed mannish gesture by Jackson Pollock deconstructs the concept of abstract pouring. Dipping her box gloves into a white paint the author paints a baby’s head.
Art Critic On…
Jurga Barilaitė (b. 1972) lives and works in Vilnius. She graduated from Painting department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 1996. Alongside the mediums of painting and assemblage, gradually she started using drawing, moving image and performance. Barilaitė‘s ideas and imagery originate from her immediate environment: childhood memories and her adolescent rebellion, maternal care and nomadic experience that she combines with a history of art and pop culture. Critical approach towards the local tradition of painting and its discourse, reflection on artist‘s identity and the nature of creative process, as well as the disclosure of feminine construction form the basis of her work. In distinctively performative moving image work the artist employs her body to deliver messages varying from erotica to aggression, sentimentality to irony. The works by Barilaitė are included in the collections of the Lithuanian Art Museum, the Moden Art Center (Vilnius), and private collectors.
Dovilė Tumpytė
Keywords of Creative Practice
video art, video objects, installation, performative situations, rearticulation of painting, discourse of painting, situation of female artist
Artists I Admire
Diego Velázquez , Rembrandt, Frida Kahlo, Marina Abromovic, Pipiloti Rist, Dainius Liškevičius, Evaldas Jansas