EITHER – OR. AUTONOMOUS FREEDOM
Diana Rudokienė (Lithuania)
Part of the exhibition title, “Either – or”, was borrowed from the title of the first published work by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). He saw the either/or alternative as a universal situation of human freedom and, at the same time, a state of freedom. According to Kierkegaard, one experiences freedom in a situation of choice (“either/or”) when one sees rushing before one’s eyes limitless opportunities for self-determination, perspectives for self-projection and free choice alternatives. “Either – or” is an almost perfect description of the duality of human nature and the constant contradictions of being.
In her reflections on freedom and identity, Diana Rudokienė admits that a free person must always be conscious of their own and the world’s temporality. This means they don’t stray from their goals and pursuits, understand and take responsibility for their actions, live here and now with their whole being while doing the best that they can. For the artist, creativity means freedom, which is inseparable from people’s profound internal need to stay who they are. Meanwhile, identity is the set of beliefs we use to describe our personality and emphasise our subtle differences from others – all the things that make us unique.
So for the artist, painting is a natural need, inseparable from her being here and now. Exhibitions and creative outings are her search for her own identity to answer the perennial questions – who am I, what am I doing and why? According to Rudokienė, the key to creativity is the wish to test, take risks and see the result. So personal identity is multifunctional and complex because it consists of multiple intertwined spheres where diverse and even opposite elements can coexist. After all, our identity is defined not only by how we see ourselves but also by how others see us.
Artist, art educator and curator Diana Rudokienė is based in Panevėžys, Lithuania. She has extensive experience organising solo exhibitions, and her long creative record includes multiple group shows and symposiums in Lithuania and beyond. In 2006, she took part in the Mark Rothko 2006 International Painting Plein Air and is represented in the Rothko centre collection. Rudokienė’s work has already been shown at the Rothko Centre in four group projects by A Gallery, Panevėžys (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022).
Exhibition period: 11 December 2022– 19 February 2023
