15 October 2018

‘Spirits Within’ by Rūtenė Merk at Editorial

Rūtenė Merk, Denise, 2018. Oil on canvas, 78 x 78 cm. Courtesy: the artist
‘Spirits Within’ by Rūtenė Merk at Editorial
Rūtenė Merk, Denise, 2018. Oil on canvas, 78 x 78 cm. Courtesy: the artist

ART HISTORIAN: Body and medium are both involved in the meaning of funereal images, as it is the missing body of the dead in whose place images are installed. But these images in turn are in need of an artificial body in order that they might occupy the vacant place of the deceased. To this end, a lost body is exchanged for the virtual body of the image.

CHUCK NOLAND: We’ve made real fire, huh, Wilson. So, Wilson?

Rūtenė Merk, Remember the Time First, 2018. Oil on canvas, 105 x 80 cm. Courtesy: the artist
Rūtenė Merk, Remember the Time First, 2018. Oil on canvas, 105 x 80 cm. Courtesy: the artist
Rūtenė Merk, Cave Kling Wilson, 2018. Oil on canvas, 55 x 41 cm. Courtesy: the artist
Rūtenė Merk, Spirits Within, 2018. Oil on canvas, 130 x 95 cm. Courtesy: the artist
Rūtenė Merk, Second Life’s Cape San Blas Beach, 2018. Oil on canvas, 173 x 131 cm. Courtesy: the artist
Rūtenė Merk, Denise, 2018. Oil on canvas, 78 x 78 cm. Courtesy: the artist

FIRST PHILOSOPHER: A text lives only if it lives on, and it lives on only if it is at once translatable and untranslatable. Totally translatable, it disappears as a text, as writing, as a body of language. Totally un-translatable, even within what is believed to be one language, it dies immediately.

EDITOR: After completing the mission “Burning Desire”, Denise can be found at her house in Ganton between the times of 16:00 and 06:00 (4:00 PM and 6:00 AM). Unlike other girlfriends, Denise has no requirements in order to date her.

ART HISTORIAN: Here we grasp the roots of that very contradiction which will forever characterize images: images make a physical (a body’s) absence visible by transforming it into iconic presence. The mediality of images is thus rooted in a body analogy.

Rūtenė Merk, Spirits Within, 2018. Exhibition view in Editorial, Vilnius
Rūtenė Merk, Spirits Within, 2018. Exhibition view in Editorial, Vilnius
Rūtenė Merk, Spirits Within, 2018. Exhibition view in Editorial, Vilnius
Rūtenė Merk, Leonda, 2018. Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm. Courtesy: the artist
Rūtenė Merk, Spirits Within, 2018. Exhibition view in Editorial, Vilnius
Rūtenė Merk, Spirits Within, 2018. Exhibition view in Editorial, Vilnius

SECOND PHILOSOPHER: Even the Pyramid, however, will not be as interesting as the dead king within it, as he is the only subject whose dreams are truly worth interpreting.

GENERAL HEIN: Where is the PROOF?
DOCTOR AKI ROSS: Here.

Imprint

ArtistRūtenė Merk
ExhibitionSpirits Within
Place / venueEditorial, Vilnius
DatesSeptember 7 – October 19, 2018
PhotosAndrej Vasilenko
Websitewww.facebook.com/Editorial-1616314861962452/
Index

See also