Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte

Arctic Swell – a simple melody

Patterned, colourful shapes hang from the ceiling in a light airy room

A patterned, abstract shape hangs from the ceiling in the foreground. Behind on a wall, more shapes are displayed with lights shining from behind them.

In a dark room, a large lit artwork featuring a hand with blue fingertips is next to a smaller artwork.

A large screen in a dark room, on which is an abstract image featuring shades of blue.

In a dark room, two large lit artworks are presented next to each other.

In a dark room, a row of objects are displayed on a white table. They appear to be organic and cast shadows.

film still of a hand with a double exposure of a snow landscape in the backgroup

image from exhibition of object on wall of blue landscape of trees and snow

exhibition image of randomly shaped object on wall with a white spotlight surrounded by a red glow

film still of ariel shot image of snow landscape with digitally distorted trees

Arctic Swell – a simple melody is an installation of still and moving image work by artist Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte which seeks to soothe ‘solastalgia’ – anxiety stemming from the man-made climate crisis. The project explores the intersections between climate change, nurturing as resistance and the perception of time.

Through photographic and constructed imagery, Kotryna conveys themes of symbiosis and interconnectedness in events of various scales: a microscope captures the contraction of mammary gland cells in response to oxytocin; or a digitally reconstructed arctic forest is watched through the lens of a drone. In Arctic Swell, glimpses of sauna scenes and the foraging of wild berries and herbs speak to simple rituals of care, set to a soundtrack of lullabies sung to soothe a baby, the planet, and the singer themselves.