Nijole Kudirka. PHOTOGRAPHS

On Thursday, October 8, at 6 p.m., an exhibition of photographs by artist Nijolė Kudirka will open at the “Meno Parkas” gallery. Nijolė Kudirka's work is an existential meditation on the feeling of that place and that time where you once were or will be - or will not be - about that feeling - that unique feeling - when a moment becomes eternity - when time no longer exists - when it simply does not exist - when the clouds stop - at the same time they move without a sound in silence - when the photo camera captures an image - the only one in the entire infinite universe - when there are no more thoughts - when memory becomes eternity - when there is no more pain and the death fever no longer torments - when there are no colors - melodies - nor noise - nor silence - when the longing for that paradise perfection - that unworldly sacred nature - when the endless journey symbolically stops - when many suns in the sky - then when everything happens - when the stars twinkle like a Christmas tree during Leonardo's last supper - in Nijolė's paintings there are no people - a new order of the world without people - they are not needed - nor their faces - nor their sufferings - nor their joys - only the boat on the ocean shore is forgotten - the homeland is abandoned - at the age of six - cruel disappointment in humanity, its cruelties, lies and hypocrisy - in early childhood - life as an eternal exile - an endless journey - or maybe a flight from oneself - from one's secret - or from the unknown - from war - from bombs, from sirens, from horror and massacres - memories - maybe it was so, or maybe not - there is no dialectic and never was - exile as a way out, and the past as the future - is it only nature that is real and innocent, majestic and fierce - it does not blame and does not judge - there is no morality here - unfortunately she is not a mother - Nijolė's endless panoramas of the sea - and rocks and mountains turn into giants, maybe ancestors, maybe spirits - or maybe slaves - when clouds like thoughts float and wander in their mists - and maybe in our hearts too - when the reflections of the trees look out of the water - so quietly at you - even forgetting that name - when a gurgling stream or maybe Čiurlionis speaks to you in a soothing voice - and the stones and autumn leaves play with the light and the jet of that water - reminding us of Monet's ponds or those Tarkovsky films where the camera moves slowly but steadily - watches everywhere and everything - always - like that divine eye that sees everything - a triptych - three squares - this is the sacred panorama - Light - Light - Light and only Light - reigns there - its relatives: shadow - darkness and twilight right there - where white innocent pine forests - bleed with white blood … - Julius Ludavičius Nijolė Kudirka’s work focuses on a sense of place and time. She is especially drawn to tropical light and has travelled and photographed extensively in South America as well as in other tropical landscapes. The atmosphere created by a particular light is constantly changing, and she seeks to capture the specific mood of a unique moment. Her images follow a long pictorial tradition concerned with the depiction of an ideal, pristine landscape. They evoke memory more than reality, reflecting one of the fundamental qualities of the photographic medium. In place of immediate presence, photography offers the delayed presence of memory. Representation therefore becomes primarily a means of conveying sensations and emotions rather than an end in itself. Kudirka’s images express a longing for the past alongside a desire for timelessness, for a primordial reality associated with the idea of an Earthly Paradise. This sensibility may be connected to her experience of exile and to a deeply rooted memory of a lost home. The panoramic format extends the visual field, allows variations on a recurring theme to emerge, and reshapes the perception of pictorial space. Nijole Kudirka, who is Lithuanian by birth, is a photographer who is based in New York City. She worked first in sculpture and painting, then photography. After obtaining her Ph.D. in Psychology at Yale University, she studied in New York City at the Studio School, School of Visual Arts and International Center for Photography (ICP). She has traveled extensively and has photographed diverse / remote sites around the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. She has exhibited widely in the US and internationally an her work is in many public collections. Her work has been published in Chicago Tribune, Ford Times, Icarus, Olympus Vision Age and numerous Lithuanian journals. Her work / prints is in many private and public collections, including: McGraw Hill Publ., Wyeth Pharm, Excelon, Ortho Mcneil Pharm. Received the FOTOARTE Brasilia prize for her series Ceara Dunes, 2009 Published two books with poet Bianca Tarozzi, “Objects of Memory,” and “ House of Paper” (Querini Stampalia press) Republics. The exhibition at the Meno Parkas Gallery will beopen until November 8. Read more Toggle Photography