Roma Mikalauskytė is 4th year student of the Graphic Arts Department of the VAA, a representative of the younger generation of transdisciplinary art, whose expression includes video media, glowing, glass and stamped objects, light projections and material installations. The artist has the energy to convey in her projects a variety of themes that interest her personally: mythology, social issues, and the fusion of science and art, which encourages the viewer to go beyond a personal view of the world and to use the knowledge they already have about the world to think more objectively about the reality that surrounds them. The young artist is socially active and participates in events organized by the Academy community. Since 2021 she has been intensively participating in group exhibitions and workshops, and since 2022 she has been holding solo exhibitions. In order to broaden her expression and knowledge of interdisciplinary art, in autumn 2022 - 2023 she will participate in the glass programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) for half a year.
“Dunes” In ancient times, until there was a logical explanation, it was common practice to place the responsibility for the elements in the hands of the gods. The wind is the creator of the Universe in Baltic mythology. He knows all the ways of the air, the earth and the sky, and is considered omniscient and omnipotent. He was also considered to be the fertiliser. From the Wind, the Universe and animals are born. And it is at the seaside, besides the sea and the sand, that the Wind becomes one of the main invisible companions, changing the seaside landscape with its terrifying forces, but rewarding the people with Baltic gold - amber - after weathering storms. The dunes would be the objective result of the endurance of that invisible, terrifying element, through which you could see that invisible, but ordinary, change.
”Drop” The Balts are a group of Indo-European peoples and tribes who spoke or speak related languages or dialects. They include Lithuanians, Latvians, Prussians, Jotvinists, Sclavs, Nadruvians, Galindians, Curonians, Zimgalians, Latgalians, and Selonians. But history has not been kind to their survival, the last to disappear were the Prussians in the 18th century. Lithuanians and Latvians were the last to speak Baltic languages. Today, according to the latest data, Lithuania is one of the world’s first endangered nations. This means that we are faced with other factors determining our survival: emigration, assimilation and the demographic crisis, the latter caused by the ageing of the nation and the low birth rate. Projections are becoming very gloomy, for example that by 2045, the population will have reached the end of its life expectancy. Lithuania will have only 2 million inhabitants by 2045 (the current population is about 2.8 million). By recognizing the problem, we can finally address it. But what will the solutions to the causes of the problems go through and what will they be? As the Lithuanian folk proverb goes:” Drop after drop will smooth out the rock”. By applying the appropriate solutions, however small, we can change the current situation. The lens is a classic blown glass bubble, but there is already a change in it, a lens worked into the side, through which we can look at the current situation from a completely different angle, as if, with the solutions we are making, we have distanced ourselves from these gloomy forecasts.
