This piece is a poetic elegy about the flow of rivers and the unexpected events that occur within them. It captures the fragility of nature, where water is both a path of life and a stage for unexpected interventions of humankind.
Drawing lines and bold strokes of paint merge with the texture of the paper, mimicking the chaotic journey of a fish caught in a current. The composition is intentionally fragmented to emphasize the fish’s loss, the slashes of a sword, the river’s pull. The color palette evokes an underwater world: vegetation, sediment, flashes of light.
The visually fragmented fish is not only a symbolic motif but also a question: how do we define what we consider whole?
The work recalls a folk song or myth in which half a fish drifts downstream, unaware of where the other half has suddenly gone just as we sometimes have no answer to where some parts of ourselves disappear.
as in that song where from
Šašvė to Nevėžis and coiling
further up to Nemunas in to
the distance or something
like it through stones
with green wavy mane to
the rhythm of god’s eternal
song the rivers flow
this dance of waters
is irresistible to many
species fish and clams
crayfish and larvae meet
in search for longer life
in muddy darkness
glistening blade soughs
in the air sunbeam flashes
through a creek and flies
towards forest a gust of wind
sliding through surface
carries downstream
splashes with ripples
shouts and sweat drops
who could have thought where
that poor roach fish would swim
when cut in half by training
warrior with his sword in river
up to chest swiftly wavering
and hacking water
not knowing what will happen
with one or other side of it
the fish swam to the sea
and there got in a plastic bag
which soon got caught
into a fishing net the catch
surprised the fisherman
so much he even cursed
61×86×2 cm
acrylic, spray paint, graphite, markers lacquer on paper
2 cm white wooden frame