TOMAS TEREKAS’S PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION „A FISH FROM THE DISTRICT“

At KCCC Exhibition Hall – Tomas Terekas’s photography exhibition „A fish from the district“ (orig. „Žuvis iš rajono“)

On the 7th of December, 2018, on friday, 5:30 pm at KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens st. 2, Klaipėda) a presentation of the photography project “OTHER 9” (orig. „KITI 9“) will take place – Tomas Terekas’s photography exhibition „A fish from the district“ is opening.

The photographic artist from Ukmergė Tomas Terekas just recently dived in into wide photography waters and jumped up into the daylight as a lightning – in 2016, during the international creative seminar of photographic artists’ union in Nida, the photo-project „FishEye“ created by him won the first place in the competition „We are taking pictures in Nida 2016“ (orig. „Fotografuojame Nidoje 2016“), also his still life series called „Fish Fetish“ had the most positive assessment in the informal program „Nida Off“. Since then these photographies have traveled around different regions of Lithuania; there were exhibitions held in Vilnius, Telšiai, Plungė, Kupiškis, Radviliškis, Nida, etc.

T. Terekas arrived in Great Britain in order to ‘see the Great London smog, which apparently already vanished in the beginning of the 20th century’, and had stayed there for a longer period of time. ‘I bought sprat – this is how very organically the fish theme originated from the longing of the Homeland. I imagined this Riga production’s tin as a boat, in which fish are swimming through Styx into THE OTHER shore, but, in order to make fish look more dignified, I put them on their ‘feet’,’ says the artist. ‘The other composition was born when I decided to make some fish cutlets… In short, the culinary impact on creativity was high’.

In „Fish Fetish“ series Tomas works with analogue photography, uses expired film and dramatic illumination in order to get a pictorialistic effect. This technique requires slowness, concentration and thinking: ‘Still life is a really „picky“ work. The picture does not appear just by clicking a button; it is a long process until you get the final result, especially working with fish, because they lose their charm quickly and start to stink‘. The project „Fish Fetish“, that does not fit into one genre, is manifold, consisting of „Fish You Were Here“, „Flying Fishes“, „Something Fishy“ and a few more mini-series, is still being created.

The name of the other T. Terekas‘s photography project „Jesus of Suburbia“ is borrowed from the British television series „Buddha of Suburbia“, that tells us stories about lives of emigrants from Pakistan living in the United Kingdom. The photographer, thinking about emigration as a certain movement not only in space or culture, but also in time, asks himself how would Jesus interpret the current world? ‘”Jesus from the district and Jesus in the district. The all seeing-eye surrounded by CCTV cameras. Sometimes ironic, but sometimes turning the eyes very seriously on globalization, consumerism and other XXI century‘s epidemics. Messiah, who is familiar with the new media, social networking and advertising‘, the author lists work contexts.

Sometimes his presence is indisputable, intense or even a little bit impudent: here Jesus puts on the columns of Gediminas instead of the halo; suddenly a sign prohibiting smoking replaces his nimbus, as if in the road movie the publicity texts and sign lights flicker behind main character‘s back… In other compositions the presence of Christ is just imaginary and only his silhouette is being recognizable. The statue, bought for one pound in London’s flea market, travels threw busy metropolis and small Lithuania, static character kind of revives after getting involved in the game, ironically glances at oneself and at the icons of these days.

Signs and features of surrealism, absurd, still life, portrait and popular culture overlap with each other in T. Terekas‘s works. Instead of balancing at the border of kitsch, he sometimes consciously outsteps it and impatiently casts a fishing rod – maybe a new plot will be caught?

Project „OTHERS“ (orig. „KITI“) is partially funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture and prepared by Klaipėda department of Lithuanian photographic artists’ union. Curator Darius Vaičekauskas.

The exhibition will be open until the 6th of January, 2019.

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

www.photoklaipeda.lt