Interiors are the starting point for the creative explorations of the young generation of painter Vita Opolskytė. Inspired by the so-called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, which is characterised by disorders in the perception of the size and distance of visible objects, the painter combines different scales, perspectives and points of view of depicted interior objects (furniture, carpets, windows, doors, paintings). Opolskytė's compositions defy conventional notions of interior construction and stability, but the realistic details and meticulously painted decoration ornaments give these spaces a material and historical quality. Using decoratively flattened forms, a calm rhythm of brushstrokes and muted colours, the painter creates cosy canvases. Thus, although irrational and confusing, these spaces are at the same time livable and domestic.
In the paintings, surreal elements are interspersed with fragments of real interiors, everyday and unusual objects are thrown about, as if small figurines of children, animals and toys have come from old photographs and classical works of art. The paintings, reminiscent of something between a vintage doll's house and a stage set, are imbued with a strange mystery: you can almost hear the creak of a door opening and the quiet footsteps of little feet. Each painting is like a scene from a tasteful horror film or play. The artist takes on the role of a director and organises the space and the action in it: combining details from different periods, bringing together real and historical figures, connecting real and fictional events. The cinematographic or theatrical nature of the situations is very important and intentional here. It not only elevates the painted scenes above the mundane, emphasises the psychological and emotional impact of the scenes, but also introduces a dimension of artificiality and fictionality into them. This emphasis on the distinction between reality and fiction, and the relationship between these poles, is one of the fundamental themes of Opolskytė's work.
Some details of the painted interiors - cast-iron radiators, segments of the living room sections in every second apartment, carpet and wallpaper patterns - refer to the era of mass-produced, cloned interiors of a few decades ago, the relics of which are still alive today, having moved into the fashionable category of vintage. Because of their links to the context of place and time, many of Opolskytė's canvases are first and foremost associated with the home. This concept is very broad, encompassing a geographical location, a material building, various symbolic and mythological meanings and a strong emotional charge. Thus, it is not only the carefully reproduced physical environment that is important in the paintings, but also the state of mind. They become a metaphor for the inner home, or, according to the artist, express a longing for a home that she may never have had.
This sense of longing is projected onto the viewer. The recognisable elements of the painting provoke memories, or rather pseudo-memories: these supposedly authentic experiences are often determined by the cultural context. The plot of the painting is constructed from the (pseudo-)memories, as well as from the apt pictorial allusions and cryptic references in the titles. The viewer is provoked to engage in a kind of visual detective: to discover telling details in the paintings, to supplement them with his or her own experiences, and, following the artist's guidelines, to combine them into a narrative. The possibilities for reading the plot are almost limitless. Each painting is like a closed small scene, but they easily merge into groups, cycles and open up to new, unexpected continuations of the stories.
This is how in Opolskytė's paintings, individual mythologies become universal, personal experiences grow into common cultural experiences and vice versa - the common, the universal, is transformed into an autobiographical experience and an authentic survival. Her paintings appear at the threshold where the inner and outer worlds collide and become a gateway between them. In this parallel space, operating according to the laws of the dream or the imagination, stories that may never have existed are re-created (or falsified?), and the impossible becomes possible. By suggesting that the world she paints may sometimes be more real than the one we exist in, the artist encourages us to question what seems real and to rely on ephemeral visions.
