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| 1968. Un-titled. |
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| 1968. Un-titled. |
My present work focuses on memory, identity, historical truth, change, our links with past and fragility of those links. I take books, that no longer have the society that supports them and I reduce their materiality and their content to an immensely fragile state - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.
I do not fire random books. The books fired for this project come from a wheelbarrow in Lithuania: in the summer of 2009 they were ready for the fireplace. The books are old Soviet text books and propaganda books, published in the sixties and the seventies. They very much representative of their times and their locale. Not only for then truths they contain, but also for their indexality. So I cremate them, I purge them of the memories and the thoughts and the residue that they carry.
- Egidija Čiricaitė
What a powerful line of work, and how beautiful. I resonate with the connection between the creative and the destructive, their eternal dance and interplay, and how one cannot exist without the other. Books as fragile depositories of disintegrating memories. The dangers of forgetfulness, and the inevitability of it.
ReplyDeleteAre you using only fire in your book-destruction? some look more as if they have been through water. x
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Thank you, Carolina! I like like your ideas about the dangers of forgetfulness and - especially - the inevitability of it.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I am only using fire. The choice is based on the books in our barn which had been set aside to be burned well before I got my eyes on them. http://www.blog.egidija.com/2010/10/burning-books-1.html
Apart from fragility - I also like the sterility that can only be achieved by burning.
Edidija
ReplyDeleteyou missed out on a wonderful session at flat time house on tues - to get a way into John Latham's ideas behind his work - whose work which must in some way must link to your work
I know, Les! Unfortunately, I had a small problem - had to get kids at 3.30. However, I have read some of his writings and I will try to make it for the 2.00 seminar tomorrow. Fingers crossed! Weather permitting! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe images look very beautiful. It seems like you have given them a whole new life - allbeit a very temporary one. How do you plan to exhibit the work?
ReplyDeleteChris
Chris, I have been thinking a lot about that :-), but I have not decided yet. I do like the fragility factor. I like the idea of them being touched by the viewer or otherwise affected to speed up disintegration. On the other hand, there is a possibility of displaying them as untouchable artifacts (like in the British Library). I have not decided.
ReplyDeleteAny ideas?