Lithuanian artist comes to Yogyakarta

By Sri Wahyuni

YOGYAKARTA (JP): During the election, people associated specific colors such as blue, red and yellow with different political parties. But this is not the case for Lithuanian visual artist Sigitas Staniunas, who is holding an installation art exhibition here at Cemeti Art House from Dec. 4 to Dec. 17. Blue, red and yellow are dominant colors in his mostly monochromatic art work.

"Color is indeed very important in my painting and has symbolic meaning. Color has universal meaning," Staniunas told The Jakarta Post. "I believe art has something to do with nature, culture, religion and spiritual elements, but not with politics."

Blue, for example, is often directly associated with the sky and water. It is also a symbol of spirituality in old cultures and the main decorative color in the Middle East. In Christian iconography, blue is a symbol of virginity and honor. This factor explains why Staniunas' paintings are often monochromatic and contain variations of the same color. "It allows me to achieve more powerful expression in my work," he said.

For example, the 3 meter by 4 meter The Battle at the Angiare, a copy of a fresco by Leonardo da Vinci that was destroyed during World War I, is dominated by blue. On the other hand, The Tower of Babel, The Tower of Babel -- Gate of Stars and Yellow Moon -- Homage to Van Gogh have yellow as the dominant color. While Vortex -- Red Kiss, Sisyphus -- Man and Stone and Unsent Letters are dominated by red.

The three colors -- red, blue and yellow, therefore, compose the essence of Staniunas' paintings, which are mostly in a huge or large-scale format. Other elements, including plastic art such as sculpture, graphics and architecture, are also used in the works.

In Burned Secrets, Staniunas uses black charcoal to form a hollow architectural structure with a piece of transparent glass as the upper cover so that the viewers can look through the room inside the structure. Small beads including marbles, coral, chains and a piece of old and rusted iron are placed in the reddish room. Little red blinking lamps are used to illuminate the room, giving an impression of burned space.

Born on April 30, 1965, in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, Staniunas mostly chooses painting as the main media to express his ideas. But he is also a site- specific installation and performance artist. "My choice of painting as the main medium to express my ideas was determined by the fact that painting is the oldest and most profound artistic tradition in the history of culture," Staniunas said, adding that even Leonardo da Vinci called painting "The Queen of All Arts".

In seeking to explore the nature of painting, he uses both modern technologies and traditional methods. In this way his painting is usually combined with elements of graphics and sculpture. Various art objects as well as sound installations are sometimes exhibited at the same time to emphasize the ideas in his paintings.

The study of Oriental architecture and culture has also determined his preference for the large format of his artwork. "The purpose of using large formats is to expand the function of today's art, which has a tendency to become merely a home decoration," said Staniunas.

He developed an interest in site-specific installations when he was searching for allegorical contexts. In 1991, he joined SEL (super ex libris), which has specific interest in site-specific installations. The sites are specific because they usually use ones which have cultural values, especially because of their historical value. The sites include monasteries, military forts, artillery fortifications and observatories.

"I believe that art exhibitions should take place not only in traditional gallery spaces but also at sites associated with other social activities," he said.

Performances are also used as a means to express his views about the relationship between existence and creativity to emphasize the impacts of extreme situations on daily life, to consider existential issues and to draw a parallel between post- industrial pragmatism and poetry.

To achieve this end Staniunas uses all kinds of art objects -- including various symbols, combinations of light and darkness, plastic movements and live music -- in his performances. When he officially opened his exhibition at Cemeti Art House he held a performance in which he used fire, light, darkness, water and live drum music to perform the "digging and burial ritual".

The works in Staniunas' current exhibition were painted at the art house, but the concepts were prepared back home. "But I believe, my being here for several days has also influenced my work. I cannot tell how far the influence is, but it is surely there," he added.

Staniunas' exhibition is a cooperation between UNESCO's International Fund for the Promotion of Culture and Cemeti Art Foundation. He was selected from about 60 international artists who registered themselves for the project. The project gives the winner a chance to be a resident artist at Cemeti for two-and-a- half months.

Staniunas -- who is also a stage designer -- was a graduate of the Kaunas Art School in Lithuania, where he studied painting for seven years (1978 to 1985). He gained his Master of Fine Arts after completing his education at the School of Visual Arts, Painting and Installations at Vilnius Art Academy (1985 to 1991).

He began exhibiting in 1989, taking part in individual and joint exhibitions with Lithuanian and overseas artists. His work has been shown at the Needle site-specific installation (Chicago, U.S., April 1995), The Bath House site-specific installation (Chicago, May 1995), the Mediawave international visual art festival (Gyor, Hungary, May 1998) and Time and Space Movement international performance festival (Paide, Estonia, May 1999).