The large-format works of the cycle “Personnel route” depict railway wagons that once ran on the route with a graphic representation of “Liepāja – Novopolotsk”, with inscriptions, overlays left by people over the years. At the time when the works were created, a lady, a former railway worker, had come to the Karosta water tower and explained in detail what each number and symbol on the wagons meant, the painter remembers.
Photo: From personal archive
The idea of reproducing railway wagons in large-format works has been patiently waiting for twenty years. “When I came to Liepāja and worked in the Karosta water tower, I realized that I wanted to realize this cycle, and I was given such an opportunity,” says the artist.
When reproducing the wagons, various techniques are combined – dry brush, tracing and stencils, which visually create the effect of layers. The exhibition creates conceptual parallels with the idea of human interaction and its imprints.
Photo: From personal archive
Painter Agate Apkalne’s consistently hyperrealistic talent has been appreciated in Latvia and has gained a wider circle of admirers in Western Europe, especially in Germany and France. Over the years, Agate Apkalne has gradually developed more and more symbolic plots and meaningful characters.
As the artist says: “Ideologically, my main interest is in the regularity of things. How current action, behavior and thought form resonates in the future.” The artist reflects the idea that we do not exist without each other, we are connected in one big chain and, through continuous interaction from the past, we create our future.
Also in this cycle, the artist emphasizes that every spoken word and action changes our common picture in the future. Thus, today is as we made it yesterday, perhaps even much, much earlier. The similarity is with railway tanks. One has ordered the cistern, one has drained it, one has written the inscription. How surprising, what extensive information or even energy charge is carried by such a simple object as a cistern, which we don’t even notice in the rush of life.
The exhibition will be on view in the Liepāja Museum enfilade from January 11 to March 3.
2024-01-08 16:03:10
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