Emilija Petrauskienė
Silver Garden / Tulips
Emilija Petrauskienė personal exhibition “Silver Garden / Tulips” will be open at Vilnius Photography Gallery (Stiklių str. 4 / Didžioji str. 19, Vilnius) October 25th. Meeting and exhibition tour with Emilija Petrauskienė will take place November 4th, 5.30 p.m.
Silver Garden consists of pieces of a childhood garden frozen in silver. The project started from an idea to recreate a garden from a childhood – which is always wonderful like a dream, full of colorful flowers and bees and butterflies fluttering around, fragrant herbs and secret corners filled with light playing between the leaves. A big part of Emilia’s childhood was spent in such a garden, which was surrounded by thick forest. Under old apple trees she played with dolls made from dead clematisblooms and phloxflowers.
The garden she creates is like travelling back in time, to when there was no rush, to when we didn’t have to count our time in minutes or seconds and the summer holidays felt like they would last forever. So, she chooses an ancient wet plate collodion technique to create a result similar to engravings and lithographs, also searching for compositions recalling old herbariums. She uses slow photography, and the process itself takes her back in time. The project is ongoing – she creates the garden not only in silver but also behind a window where she collects interesting plants and then catalogues them on a wet plate. All the works she presents are silver gelatin prints from wet plate collodion negatives.
Emilija Petrauskienė (b.1981) is a full-time family physician. Art and later photography was always her hobby. She started taking photographs more than 10 years ago. The main aim of learning how to shoot nice photos was to create a beautiful family album, but it all went further. Now using almost entirely analogue techniques, she captures her everyday life and creates the Silver Herbarium. 2017-2021, featured in Lens Culture Emerging Talent and Exposure competition galleries 2018, shortlisted in Sony World Photography Awards in open competition, Still Life category, with the work Tulip, White. 2019 International Photography Awards (IPA) 2nd place in Non-professional Analogue, Fine Art subcategory. 2019, 2020 RHS Photography competition, portfolio category, silver medal.
Funded by
the Lithuanian Council for Culture
Open
Tue–Fri 12 AM – 6 PM, Sat 12 AM – 4 PM
