That Feeling of The Night

2020-21

That feeling of the Night is an immersive art installation in space that contains two key elements: video work and glass objects in space. The visitor is at the height where the explosions take place and at the depth where the glass shakes restlessly. First shown in May 2022, Vilnius Photography Gallery, Lithuania.

An explosion might occur (8’ 43, no sound) is a looped video work filmed with a drone in a single take, in a 360 degree rotation at the height of an explosion of fireworks. It shows the midnight moment - a transition to the new year, symbolizing a new chapter, new beginnings, while played in loop emphasises never ending event, which at some point feels like a state of a limbo. The film was shot on New Year’s Eve from 2019 to 2020, the midnight moment of the entry into a new decade.

As the viewer is hypnotized by the explosions, the glass objects titled The Sound of Breaking Glass are shaken by an electric current, creating a tension in the space while subtly enticing the viewer, inviting them to interact, perhaps touch .

Although both elements are very different, at a certain point they synchronize and creates the feeling of an endless uncanny celebration, with a feeling of the terror. One can ask oneself whether it is a never-ending celebration, a midnight moment in limbo or a night of never-ending accidents, e.g. a war zone.

The art installation is a master’s degree thesis called “Amusing Ourselves to Death” written in Vilnius Academy of Arts. The thesis was a collection of her own written essays, focusing on destructive practices and entertainment, bridging them in the art context and visual research of war images take from history and to modern days (i.e. from full-scale Russia’s invasion in Ukraine).