Egle Ruibyte and Algirdas Jakas / Hermit Crab

April 14 – May 13, 2022

Atletika

Vitebsko g. 21

Vilnius 11349, Lithuania

Algirdas Jakas and Eglė Ruibytė
Hermit Crab

In order to survive, the fragile
exoskeleton animal must find shelter in the shells of other organisms or
objects. The hermit crawls about in search of a hiding-place. The quest is
competitive, so it may have to settle in old mussel shells or even rubbish that
has long since sunk to the very bottom of the ocean; the aim is nothing but to
protect its brittle body.

Landing on polymorphous surfaces,
the authors’ works mix together by squeezing their bodies into each other: they
are each other’s safety mediums.

Algirdas Jakas’s anxiety-ridden
objects are instruments of hypochondriacal self-diagnosis: embedded in their
own exoskeletons, his drawings hint at an investigative yet dangerous
radiation, piercing the bones like a self-made drill and analysing their psychogeological
layers. Meanwhile, Eglė Ruibytė’s objects – so-called “void fillers”, commonly
used to fill parcel boxes – speak of global processes and trajectories in which
the notional vulnerable bodies or objects leave only their fallen “armour”,
resting and replicating what they are supposed to protect. At first glance,
these objects look like mass-produced artefacts, but on closer inspection they
reveal manual work, lung air, errors, and even hidden messages.

This is the duo’s first
collaborative project presenting their work in a gallery space. The
architecture of Atletika, where the works are exhibited and interact, hints at
the building’s original purpose. The surviving outline of a school’s physical
education hall alludes to a socio-cultural discourse: disciplining, oppressive
and competitive, yet at the same time a protecting enclosure, isolating from
potential dangers.

For the last three years, the duo
has been working between Hamburg and Vilnius. Both artists graduated in Graphic
Art from the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts and in Sculpture from the Hamburg
University of Fine Arts (HFBK Hamburg).

Using materials which are sometimes
associated with hobbies or therapy, Algirdas Jakas combines the aesthetics of
drawing with organic and often physiological volumetric forms. The author
explores the traits of care and collective anxiety and the principles of
self-help. Eglė Ruibytė is a visual artist and graphic designer who combines
these two disciplines in her multi-layered creative work. Delving into the technologies
of industrial labour and searching for functional metaphors, she constructs
mass-produced objects partly by means of manual work. In this way, she leaves
deliberate space for errors that speak of humanness within the limits of an
industrial machine.