Adolfas Šaulys. Exhibition GRAND FREE | 2014 03 20 – 04 12

Adolfas Šaulys exhibition GRAND FREE. 20 March – 12 April, 2014

Adolfas Šaulys is a Lithuanian/Estonian metal artist of the middle generation. Born in Samogitia, he studied and now is living and creating in Tallinn. Adolfas Šaulys is a highly conceptual, ironic, professional and aesthetic artist, and a very taciturn person, whose works demonstrate outstanding quality and precision. Artist’s exhibitions in Lithuania are a very rare phenomenon.

In 2013, the artist won the Grand Prix at the contest exhibition organised by Meno Niša Gallery, entitling him to hold a solo exhibition in the Gallery in 2014. Backed into a corner, the artist had to launch his exhibition GRAND FREE at the Meno Niša Gallery.

Although usually working with Mari Relo-Šaulys, this time he is presenting his solo works.

Many people think artists’ freedom is enviable. They can do what they like, be masters of their time, and make money doing it. They can become a guru of masses by spreading in the mass media their smart thoughts that are often enigmatic and understandable by a few people. So, they can afford being wise, free, and stylish…

The truth is that Adolfas Šaulys does enjoy the privileges of an artist. He enjoys the freedom of not working during the usual working hours; the freedom of having no bosses; the freedom to choose a place of living and working, time for vacation and work; also, the freedom of having no social guarantees and pension; the freedom of doing whatever he wants without being fined or paid for that; the freedom to speak or keep silent.

All those mentioned and not-mentioned freedoms once resulted in a spatial installation, comprised of a deconstructed, phantom chair, old saw aspiring to build “a new order of the ages” (novus ordo seclorum), and lots of noodles pretending of jewellery items.

The chairs are not the ones we are all seeking for and enviously calling “soft-job chairs”, but rather those free artists usually get. Still want to be in their shoes?

Noodles are exactly what they are hanging on our ears: propaganda and commercials (unexpectedly, the former have recently become more relevant, although the latter have not disappeared, too). It’s up to us to keep or refuse wearing these noodles. Or, we can wear them while looking at others tauntingly, pretending that we know everything better.
The saw claims to be an art item and a masons’ tool, proclaiming the coming of the new ages. Yet, a short look is enough to see rust and to understand that the promoted new order for the new ages in fact is an old one.
OK. And what should all that mean?

According to the author, “the less you know about art and artists, the healthier you are”.

We have to think ourselves. Everyone has the freedom of thought, not just artists. GRAND FREE – in one single gallery.

Dr. Jurgita Ludavičienė



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