Simona Merijauskaitė – in 2015 graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts, Master’s degree in painting (in the studio of prof. Henrikas Čerapas). In 2011 she studied in Utrecht School of Arts (Netherlands) where she took part in a group exhibition “Empty space”. In 2016 she received individual State grant for the creator of culture and art. In the early phase of her creative self-explorations she revealed herself as an intuitivist and extremely expressive supporter of action painting techniques. She often manipulates with the unpredictable and unrepeatable painting energy, searching for its discharge and impact. These searches intertwined with the themes of intimacy, sexuality, femininity, mixing with self-projections in the red monochrome painting series “Red” (2012). Figurative painting series “Dreams” note the visual concentration and monumentality (exhibitions: “No More Excusses” with Kristina Mažeikaitė, “Q 14. Quadriennale”, Vilnius, 2014). After discovering a stone as an organic form and motive for painting, Simona surprised with her intuitive metaphors and impetuous signs. They are revealed with strong sense of archetypical images and nature mysticism, as if invoking nostalgia for the primordial processes of creature-hood (solo exhibitions: “My Cosmo”, “Black Holes in the Sky”, Vilnius, 2016). The stone, which is immovable, according to paintress, is only a form of expressing the dialectics of matter-spirit, internal-external, idea-material. Chamber structures of her earlier pictures quickly turned into the creation and development of spatial dimensions (inspired by the cosmic images of Anselm Kiefer paintings). The meaning of resistance which appeared in the recent installation-like collection of her paintings named – The Wall of Stones also became an important symbol for the whole project “Ad Originem”.
From AD ORIGINEM 2016 catalog . Dr. Agne Kulbyte
Interview fragments: "From the conversations with “Ad Originem” painters"
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Agnė Kulbytė: Lately we often hear about the “revival” of painting and about the continuations of painting traditions. It seems that “back to the beginning” quickly substituted the claims of “the death of painting”…
Simona Merijauskaitė: The revival of painting? You can only continue the painting tradition if it hasn’t been dead to you. And when I look at the wholeness, I see the same view. Even the works around are the same… What has changed? It seems to me, nothing. And I still search how to control the form, how to put the stroke…
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Agnė: What does “ad Originem” – exhibitions manifestation of “progressive, neomodern painting” means to you? How do you experience it?
Simona: When the attitudes of artists changes around so quickly, depending on the direction of the wind, “ad Originem” becomes a cornerstone that retains the idea of alive creation/painting. Resistance – to the technocratic context which devours everything. It is said: every artist reflects his era. But a creator is not just a soulless mirror, he also has the power to model it. So – “ad Originem” is a wilful escalation of what is new, an ongoing stream. I find always differently expression of truthfulness in every participant of these exhibitions. Everyone fights with his own plastic tasks. Everyone searches for his own true Human. For me, as a paintress, it is a movement and a process of transformation. Inspirational, sometimes pulling out of stagnation.
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Simona: While painting, I often feel like a sculptor, the canvas is not flat to me, I see it as a spatial block from which I am going to hew out a form. Painting then becomes quite an extraordinary process that is related to such movements like pushing, pulling, lifting. But at the same time it is also construction. It is very interesting when you have to create not only the body, but also the space, it‘s depth.
Agnė: It is a slightly different “logic“ of creative work – your different “structuring“.
Simona: Yes, to me - painting itself is an exceptional act. It requires utter dedication. Brain, in this case, is an instrument that I use in order to work. It may sound somehow too simple, but it is rather new in my work. Earlier on, I would largely rely on feelings. Now I see that it is hard to formulate an image without this more rational approach. It is my “laser“. Lately my painting gained visual strength because I connected form with the energetic force. To form a spatial configuration that connects two worlds became my plastic aim.
Agnė: But there also has been a concrete starting point in your work?
Simona: When I found the motive of the stone – it became a synonym of growth to me. It echoes the ever changing structures of the universe. These are not just nice phrases. In reality, atoms of the stone are also set in certain order which constitute a dimensional formation. Via this concrete crystal system images contain forms of cosmic bodies and the tension of the Big Bang.
Agnė: Painting – is a spiritualised matter, using your metaphors, - it is the “moving of the stone“, the “cognition of the inside“ of it. Simona: Motive – is just a suggestion for direction. Painting – an inward action. It is the renouncing of the protective social strands. You are allowed to think and to feel more intensely, through painting. In this way you can dispose with heavier loads, to approach the stone, and, at the same time, the perception of the world itself. Then you gain the power to create a new structure of the stone, by disassembling and reforming the reality which exists.
Kristina: Simona is expressive till the end. Her work is like a convulsion, an outburst. Expression starts to get direction in her latest work – the logical construction, that has been already mentioned, appears. So it is possible to talk about constructiveness of the work, about the impression of form – strength. Simona‘s work passed through different stages and changed constantly. And however, now it seems to me, that all Simona‘s creation – is the Longing. Like a human misses his land or a child misses his father. It is a demand for truth by a human. And for me this elevates her creation to such a nobility or even mission where it does not matter that much, what kind of colour, what kind of relation it is, because the aim itself is mighty.
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Simona: The very word “contemporary”, when talking about painting, makes me laugh. Living today makes you contemporary, but when this word is put into art context – real comedy... “Contemporary“ art disappoints. Creative work – seems for me to be an individual path. Every time you stand before the canvas you have to do everything anew, you need to find a new world, new instruments. Creators that seems closest to me, are those who are still true to what is individual, and whose aim is not to somehow irritate the viewer, but, first of all, to shake up yourself. To paint what is very significant and close to them, what they breathe. By saying this, I do not mean only painting; I feel closeness to all free, creative people who put all their energy and vitality into what they are doing. I feel resonance with them.
Agnė: In your paintings I feel a struggle with some kind of an impending total collapse that requires a complex physical and spiritual process to overcome. Your plastics are filled with it.
Simona: “That is so open, that it is even scary“, – I‘ve heard someone saying about my new paintings. Maybe it is indeed uncomfortable to glance at something pure. That is at the intersection of the beginning and the end.
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Simona: You couldn’t create anything real, if that wasn’t painfully personal. And instantly you would become impersonal in the act of painting. In this aspect I am different from many contemporary painters and from my authority – Anselm Kiefer, because they all create myths, or look for them in culture. To me they are observers. My myth is reality. I’m consciously living this way. I consciously create archetypical images, because my aim is the truth, but I am doing this through personal experience of the process of painting.
From AD ORIGINEM 2016 catalog.
Links:
http://www.otwartapracownia.com/wystawy/2016/12-ad-originem/set_001.html
http://www.bernardinai.lt/straipsnis/2016-04-21-simona-merijauskaite-mano-tikslas-isgyventi-gryna-buti/143392
http://vilniauszinia.lt/progresyvios-tapybos-paroda-ad-originem/
http://kvadrienale2014.lt/simona-merijauskaite/
http://www.otwartapracownia.com/wystawy/2016/12-ad-originem/set_001.html
http://www.bernardinai.lt/straipsnis/2016-04-21-simona-merijauskaite-mano-tikslas-isgyventi-gryna-buti/143392
http://vilniauszinia.lt/progresyvios-tapybos-paroda-ad-originem/
http://kvadrienale2014.lt/simona-merijauskaite/
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