TOMA ŠLIMAITĖ “UNEARTHLY CHILDREN”

TOMA ŠLIMAITĖ

On the 24th of January, 2020, on Friday, at 5:30 pm at KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens str. 2, Klaipėda), creative exhibition ‘Unearthly Children’ by Toma Šlimaitė will be opened.

The exhibition features two collage series – ‘”hildren from Mars or…'” and “Children of the Century'”, created between the period of 2015 and 2019. Both series are unified by the main leitmotifs of children, childhood and the past.

In the series ‘Children from Mars or…’ (2015-2017), the main characters of the works experience different emotions and moods: cheering joy is intertwined here with the seriousness and stupor. The author sees children as extraordinary creatures, perhaps aliens from another planet, masking their singularity with the so-called “childish” innocence. The unearthly atmosphere of their action is rendered by the means of artistic expression – paper painted by the author’s technique and a free composition.

The latest T. Šlimaitė works’ series ‘Children of the Century” (2018–2019) is based on Soviet experiences. The author uses photographs from personal and relative’s albums from the 1958-1988 period, which are rich in household artifacts of that time: furniture, children’s toys and clothes with cartoon heroes, big white ribbons decorating girls’ braids, etc. These objects are the symbols trapped deep inside the memory of the artist and the people of her generation. But for today’s children, it’s an unfamiliar, distant, sometimes even intimidating world. The author looks at the historical period through a personal prism, she is interested in the experiences of a child who grew up in a different system. These works extend the line of T. Šlimaitė’s intuitive and personal creation – each of her works is born from personal states, moods, experiences and memories.

The exhibition is complemented by Algimantas Šližauskas’ documentary film, where short everyday childhood episodes of the main characters – his daughter and son – are combined into continuous series: various games, book reading, decorating a Christmas tree, picnics – these childhood episodes of 1964-1966 period reveal the moods and feelings of the Soviet time.

About the author
Toma Šlimaitė (d.o.b. 1985) graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2010 with a Master’s degree in Graphic Arts. In 2007, she studied at the ‘Accademia Di Belle Arti Di Urbino’ in Italy under the European Student Exchange Program ‘Erasmus’, later she underwent a traineeship at the Helnaes Hojskole Art Studio in Denmark. She has been participating in exhibitions since 2006. The artist has organized many personal exhibitions, her works have been exhibited in international exhibitions in Italy (‘Arte dell‘ Incisione’, Diploma), France (European Contemporary Triennial of Graphic Arts), Germany, Poland, Denmark, Armenia, international art projects in Lithuania (‘American Vision’, Diploma, Vilnius) and Italy. She is a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association since 2018 and she has been granted the status of an artist.

The exhibition will be open until the 23rd of February, 2020.

Working hours of KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens str. 2, Klaipėda): Wednesday – Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. (Closed during public holidays).

The event will be photographed and filmed, so please be informed that visitors may be seen in photos or videos of the event, and these photos or videos may be posted publicly on social networks or media.