ANTON KARYUK

Continuing his engagement with the išgirsti queer archive and drawing on the story of love between painter Bronislava Jacevičiūtė-Jėčiūtė and poet Janina Degutytė*, for the first time, the artist presents from the archive Bronislava’s 1974 watercolor of a cut rose in a glass, pairing it with his newly created work where Janina appears beside the rose, speculating that the poet was present there too.

In Soviet times, Bronislava and Janina were publicly described purely as friends. When growing up Anton was craving for representation of queerness which was almost absent. That influenced the medium of his newly created work. He used to collect postcards and calendars with a stereo effect, whose shifting images felt magical. Thus, Janina is both present and absent in the portrait through lenticular printing. With this gesture, the artist seeks to restore justice and reinsert the forcibly removed queerness into Lithuania's cultural memory.

*Please see the research by Giedrė Šmitienė exploring their correspondence from the 1960s, tracing how their connection began and how art, life, and affection intertwined between them (Giedrė Šmitienė, “I Smile Too When I Think of You”: The Beginning of the Friendship between Bronė Jacevičiūtė-Jėčiūtė and Janina Degutytė. Intermedial Source and Initial Research of the Relationship, Colloquia, no. 52, 2023, pp. 131–157. Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore).