Griskonyte-Volunge Ausra

Volunge_Adomas ir Adomas2009

Adam & Adam, 2009, photo-sculpture, 1,8 x 1,05 m

According to Carl Gustav Jung, a pubescent young man shapes in his unconscious a feminine mental image, or Anima; equally, a young woman unconsciously matures in herself a male image, which Jung respectively called Animus. The feeling of love starts when a projection of this inner self to the outer world gets a resonance. Jung sees here a natural symmetry: a man has his female inner self, and a woman has a male one. But what does a man project, when his outer object happens to be also a man?

Ancient Greek myths come here to mind, the story of Narcissus fallen in love with himself. He spurned not only the love of young women, but also of a young man named Ameinias, who consequently killed himself. Narcissus felt in love with his own reflection, yet understood how meaningless his passion was. And what if Narcissus had not rejected Ameinias’ love and the new Adams are now plucking love fruits off the forbidden tree? Alas, the interaction of two narcissuses is specific in that they cannot be in an equal relationship: the other here is either idealized or depreciated. When idealizing the other, a narcissus starts to feel similar to him/her and thus unconsciously raises his/her own value. Perhaps Narcissus is simply looking for his soul twin – an image, by loving which he could love himself alone?

volunge x 4 1999-2003 „Whores“, 1999–2003

Studies

2005–2009 Photography and media art, Vilnius Academy of Arts

1997–2000 Photography, Vilnius Technology School

1993–1996 – Photography at Alvydas Vaitkevičius’ master class

Selected Exhibitions

2013 Photographs-documents, Marija and Jurgis Šlapeliai Museum, Vilnius

2013 From Dusk till Dawn. 20 Years of LGBT Freedom in Lithuania, Contemporary Art centre, Vilnius

2012 Žmogus Lietuvos fotografijoje: požiūrių kaita XX ir XXI a. sandūroje (Human in Lithuanian Photography: The Changing Attitudes at the Turn of the 21st Century), Prospektas gallery

2011 Family, International exhibition, Tallinn

2004 Akies krašteliu (With the Tail of An Eye), Cinema and Theatre Museum, Vilnius

2002 Kekšės II (Whores II), Kaunas

2001 Exhibition for international day of AIDS, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Vilnius

2000 solo show Kekšės (Whores), Užupis Art Incubator, Vilnius

Art critic on…

Aušra Griškonytė-Kavaliauskienė is one of the few Lithuanian artists that deal with issues of sexual identity in their artistic practice. This topic for her is not an occasional subject as it was for most of other artists (for instance Ugnius Gelguda or Akvilė Anglickaitė), but the core of her whole body of work. Moreover, Griškonytė-Kavaliauskienė has “an insider’ view” to the life of those with unconventional sexual identities, what in turn provides her works with a certain intimacy and authenticity, which in contemporary art context often serve as a basis for artistic success. Although most of her works are photographs, Griškonytė-Kavaliauskienė is not a photographer but rather an artist using photography. In that photography for her is not a way to aim for artistic or aesthetic purposes, but a tool to investigate her close social surrounds, human relationships contracted there and changing personal identities. Furthermore, is several of her projects she combines photography with other media, first of all with installation. She exhibits her works in unconventional way paying attention to a particular exposition space and material surfaces of prints. Griškonytė-Kavaliauskienė’s works are interdisciplinary in the respect to form, content and communication to the audience.

Tomas Pabedinskas

Keywords of creative practice

transvestite, intimacy, whores, masculinity, femininity, Ken, transformation, interdisciplinarity, homophobia