Rieškutės & Starting the Fire / 2013 / Modified chair, oil paint

Presented at: Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA (2016); Valerie Traan Galerie, Antwerp, BE (2016); Frutta, Rome, IT (2013); Rongwrong, Amsterdam, NL (2013)

“Rieškutės” is the word in Lithuanian for when you put your hands together to make a bowl. This is represented by the negative space in the chair sculpture on the left. Once when exhibited, the work was accidentally placed upside down. This was a very exciting mistake, so I decided that if the work is upside down, the title of the work changes to “Starting the Fire” as the hands are now in a position of covering, as you would do when lighting a cigarette in the wind or whispering a secret message.

“Why can’t a thing be two things?” asks Oscar Tuazon. This work has now become what he calls a “transsexual thing”. It contains two works in one object, which are simply determined by the position.