Augustinas Našlėnas

DoB: 17-02-1985

Augustinas Našlėnas is a Lithuanian multimedia artist and designer working from Klaipėda. Augustinas holds a Ba degree in Visual Communications from the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Lithuania, and an MA degree in Contemporary Arts Practice from the Sheffield-Hallam University, United Kingdom.

Augustinas’ fine-art practice consists of multimedia installations and performances. They are audio-visual experiences raising environmental, historical or spiritual awareness and promoting transformation towards a higher ideal. From 2020 on Augustinas is developing an experimental music project the LIVING TEMPLES.

Augustinas also works as a digital illustrator, graphic designer and photographer. Along with working for an advertising agency he develops his own brand of design called Vandenis Media. He produces audio-visual installations and films for history museums and educational institutions as well as branding for musical artists and festivals, creates illustrations for album covers and merchandise as well as videos and motion graphics for music.

Education

2012-2015: Sheffield-Hallam University, UK. MA Contemporary Arts Practice.

2003-2008: Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Lithuania. Ba Visual Communications.

Professional experience

Since 2023: Founder and multimedia designer at VANDENIS MEDIA (small partnership).

Since 2020: Photographer-designer at the advertising agency INTERGRAFIKA ltd., Klaipėda, Lithuania.

Since 2015: Multimedia artist.

2008-2023: Freelance designer, working under the name Vandenis Media.

2016-2018: Studio assistant at Paul Morrison Studio, Sheffield, UK.

2016-2017: Assistant photographer for Nigel Barker Photography, Sheffield, UK.

2011-2013: Artist in residence at the Creative Arts Development Space, Sheffield, UK.

2005-2007: Assistant at Vytas Karaciejus’ studio of applied photography, Klaipėda, Lithuania.

2004-2005: Technical drafter at a retail installation manufacturer Novena, Klaipėda, Lithuania.

Projects currently in progress

Living Temples. Shamanic music for deep listening made in collaboration with the Curonian landscape of western Lithuania. “It is a multimedia art project in which contemporary technology helps blending location recordings collected at the Curonian sanctuaries with sounds obtained by natural objects found in those places (such as tree branches, stones, birds feathers) and with sounds created using archaic shamanic instruments (such as drums, rattles, whistles, zithers). Our creative method is that the music is made in collaboration with the landscape, regarding it as a living being (genius loci) and allowing it to play its part.”

Completed projects

Signs of the Baltic Worldview . An educational film commissioned by the Educational Centre of the Amber Museum in Palanga, Lithuania, in 2021. The film touches upon the key concepts of the ancient Baltic cosmology explaining them through their connection to traditional textile patterns and artifacts of folk art.

Silent Temples. “In 2018-2020 I collaborated with my colleague and friend, audio engeneer and artist, Vilius Jokubaitis (Vilo Spice). Together we developed an audio-visual installation comprising an 80-minute animated film projection complemeted by a 5.1 surround soundtrack. It is an experiential piece of multimedia art, inspired by the Curonian heritage of our homeland. The installation premiered in June 2020 at the Museum of History of Lithuania Minor and then toured exhibition spaces and festivals around Lithuania in 2020-2021.”

Gaiamycota. “It is an interdisciplinary multimedia art project started in April 2016 by artists Anthony Bennett, Augustinas Našlėnas, Ryan Taylor and a professor of biology Duncan Cameron. 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 political and cultural will. The project premiered in Sheffield at the Festival of the Mind 2016 as an audio-visual installation and a performance and had around 9000 visitors.”

Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream (2010-2012). “It was my first series of photomontages. The 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 came third in a contest for young photographers called ‘Debut’. The competition was organised by the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers. 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.”

Be-Tono (2012). “It was a large scale photomontage designed for an audio-visual poetry festival Tarp 2012 in Vilnius, Lithuania. A 4×3 metre print of the image was a part of an installation which also included bricks with poetic inscriptions written by 11 writers, inspired by the image. The installation was shown in Vilnius and Klaipėda, Lithuania.”

Personal exhibitions

“Crossroads of the youth” (2005.10) I.Simonaitytė public library art department, Klaipėda, Lithuania

“Silent Temples. Photographic Landscapes” (2007.01) University of Šiauliai gallery, Lithuania

“Silent Temples. Photographic Landscapes” (2007.02) Kelmė culture centre, Lithuania

“Silent Temples. Photographic Landscapes” (2007.03) Klaipėda gallery of photography, Lithuania

“Silent Temples. Photographic Landscapes” (2007.11) Gargždai culture centre, Lithuania

“Photomontages” (2011.07) Vilnius gallery of photography, Lithuania

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2012.03) Creative Arts Development Space, Sheffield, UK

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2012.07) Baroti gallery, Klaipėda, Lithuania

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2013.06) Nida culture centre Agila, Lithuania

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2013.07) F.Bajoraitis public library, Šilutė, Lithuania

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2013.09) State philharmonic, Kaunas, Lithuania

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2013.11) Gargždai culture centre, Lithuania

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2013.12) AGC gallery, Sheffield-Hallam University, UK

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2014.01) Laiptai gallery, Šiauliai, Lithuania

“Requiem for a Post-Soviet Dream” (2014.02) Klaipėda concert hall, Lithuania

“Dream Reaper – The Seeker of Visions. Photomontages. Drawings. Objects” (2018.11) Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Lithuania

Group exhibitions

“Zones of clarity” (2005.09) Klaipėda gallery of photography, Lithuania

“Jeune Création Eeuropéenne” international cont. arts biennale (2008.05), Klaipėda, Lithuania

Visual Communications degree show (2008.07) Klaipėda Centre of Culture Communications, Lithuania

A show of Sheffield photographers (2010.07) Bank Street Arts gallery, Sheffield, UK

“Debut 2010” (2010.10) Prospectus gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania

“Evolution of Consciousness” (2012.03) UCA gallery, Chatham, UK

“Woolgather Art Prize” (2012.05) Leeds, UK

“At the Still Point” Cont. Arts Practice degree show (2015.07) Sheffield-Hallam University, UK

“Gaiamycota” audio-visual installation, Festival of the Mind (2016.09) Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK

“Doorways to Mystery” video installation, Festival of Light (2019.02), Klaipėda, Lithuania