MIGLĖ RAILAITĖ
Cultural Heritage
In “Cultural Heritage,” I focused on the concept of culture and religion, more specifically metaphorically merging rave culture with a cultural heritage, in this case a temple. The words culture and religion can be used almost interchangeably and have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used; as part of my work, I blended the line between culture and religion in terms of history and heritage with rave culture, which has become religion to many in my age group and setting, especially that of the Western world, where arguably it is replacing the original meaning of the words. I myself found interest in this culture and the themes of psychedelia as I matured, but I still find myself more of an observer than a participant.
The temple retains its beauty and spiritual significance; the visuals and colours projected only highlight its features and introduce some surrealism to the scene, in this way bringing religion and spirituality into a more physical realm, therefore encouraging the creator and the viewer to reflect on what their concept and understanding of culture, religion and heritage is.
I exploited the faults in the model to my advantage; the UV mapping on the 3D model I used created an interesting glass-like texture, which changed in colour as the videos from Runway ML played. I appreciate this detail of my work as my intention was to make the installation colourful, and the initially unexpected textures definitely compliment my main idea and themes I was influenced by. Thanks to this detail I was able to explore the concept and my footage in more depth.
Miglė Railaitė
I am a UCLA sophomore from Lithuania, but I have also studied and created work in England, California, Pennsylvania and Switzerland. I work mostly with mixed media; I enjoy painting, creating installations and three-dimensional work, and have started exploring digital art as part of my major, Design Media Arts. My work focuses mostly on themes of self discovery, beliefs and exploration of the mind; my life and attempts to understand myself reflect in pieces I create. I enjoy working with colour, large spaces and contrasting elements. As a Lithuanian artist living and working internationally, my work inevitably portrays an exploration of my cultural identity, more specifically my life in Lithuania and experiences in other countries, with other people and cultures. My work has shifted more towards conceptual, three-dimensional pieces in the recent years, almost immersing the viewer in them. I have started to work with light and delicate materials, but my practice branches out to digital art, video pieces and oil paintings, which similarly deal with colours and contrasting elements.