Augustinas Našlėnas

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Photograph by Artūras Šeštokas 2020
Spiritual contemporary art inspired by ethnoculture.

My work comprises digital imaging, drawing, performance and installation art and is highly informed by spiritual and magical traditions of various cultures as well as contemporary psychology and consciousness studies.

Dvasingas, etnokultūros įkvėptas šiuolaikinis menas.

Mano kūrybinį spektrą sudaro skaitmeninė grafika ir fotografija, piešimas, performansai ir instaliacijos. Įkvėpimo semiuosi iš įvairių kultūrų dvasinių ir magiškųjų tradicijų, o taip pat šiuolaikinės psichologijos ir sąmonės studijų.

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Portfolio:

Photography | Photomontages | Automatic drawing | Objects Vandenis Design & Illustration

Below you can find information about recent projects, exhibitions etc.

Doorways to Mystery (2019)

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Doorways to Mystery is a video installation I collaborated on with my colleague Darius Vaičekauskas in February 2019. The installation was a part of the Festival of Light that takes place every winter in Klaipėda, Lithuania. Video in the installation was inspired by a quote from an American ethnobotanist and a researcher of Amazonian shamanism, Terence Mckenna.

Dream Reaper – The Seeker of Visions (2018)

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In November 2018 I had an opportunity to show a selection of my latest works at the third Festival of Photography in my hometown, Klaipėda, Lithuania. The exhibition was named Dream Reaper – the Seeker of Visions and showed photomontages, drawings and objects from the recent six years. My aim with this show was not only to exhibit my work but also to introduce the viewer to the phenomenon of shamanism and it’s significance to contemporary art and culture in general.

Here are some moments of the opening of the show.

Here you can find a 3D tour of the entire Festival of Photography 2018: https://photoklaipeda.lt/vt/fsvente2018/

Gaiamycota (2016)

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In April 2016 with my colleagues Anthony Bennett , Ryan Taylor and a professor of biology Dunc Cameron I started an interdisciplinary multimedia art project, named GAIAMYCOTA.

Gaiamycota reflects on the state of “what remains of the soil” of our planet… it’s accute predicament and foretells of a method to address this, given a global collective and cultural will.

I contributed two large format photomontages and a 15 minute video film to the project.

More about the project: www.gaiamycota.org

Gaiamycota premierred in September 2016 at the Futurecade show during the Festival of the Mind 2016 in Sheffield (UK) and had 9000 visitors. Here are a few photos from the show.

Be-tono (2012)

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Altar Shadows 2012 (digital photomontage)

In 2012 I worked on an installation called “Be-tono” (“toneless”) for the audio-visual poetry festival Tarp 2012 in Vilnius, Lithuania. I contributed a large scale photomontage called Altar Shadows, which was inspired by life and work of an early 20th century Lithuanian writer and poet Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas. The festival then invited a number of contemporary poets to write their poetic interpretations of the image, which were then put onto grey silicate bricks and arranged on the floor. Installation was shown at the Vartai gallery, Vilnius and then travelled to Klaipėda, Lithuania, where it appeared at the I.Simonaitytė’s library.

Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream (2009-2014)

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Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream is the first series of photomontages I ever made. Images embody the most vivid memories, dreams, visions and hopes related to the post-soviet reality, as seen by a growing child, as well as the difficulty of the human condition in general. It tells a story of a little boy growing up in the post-soviet world.

The first publication of the series was in 2010, when it participated in a contest for young photographers called ‘Debut’ and came third. The competition was organized by the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers. Three prints were shown in the exhibition of 11 finalists which took place in Vilnius in November 2010. In July 2011 eleven prints were shown in Vilnius in a solo exhibition entitled ‘Photomontages’.

The first exhibition with the ‘Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream’ title took place in Sheffield, UK in March 2012. In May 2012 four prints from the series were shown in the Woolgather Art Prize exhibition in Leeds, UK and came second. Between 2012 and 2014 the series toured exhibition spaces in Lithuania and was shown 9 times. 

Unfurling Headspace New and Old – a review of Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream series by Josh Gibbs for Champion Up North webzine, 2013

Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream (2009-2014)