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>> Beth Hankes |
Anita Līcis-Ribak
Artist Statements Time = Tempus (Latin) --> Temporary = Ephemeral (slight and perishable) Time Still speaks of that unattainable fictional point of stillness, or the present, around which Time hinges. Even in perceived stillness, the present Time is fragmented, ephemeral, and often obscured. As in Letters Between the (Coast) Lines, the medium of artwork—fragmented assembly of photographs printed on airmail paper—attempts to convey these qualities of fragmentation, ephemerality and obfuscation, even as we behold the most life-reaffirming and persistent forms of life. Letters Between the (Coast) Lines The same night whitening the same trees. I am what is trying to be that tree, looking for gravity, permanence, home, with my feet planted in the sand as if giving roots, while all around me moves and alters—the air, the sand, and the water—enveloping and weighing me ever more, with the passing of time. This series started evolving as part of a group art exhibit, HERE, in Northampton, MA in 2010. For me, the meaning of HERE is hinged around my experiences as of someone who lives far away from her homeland and from many people close to her, and who has adopted a language she learned well into her 20s. I have, through the years, kept exchanging letters with those I left behind. These handwritten letters kept carrying stories about our lives to one another across the ocean, became the bond that has kept us close, and nurtured our relationships over time. This series consists of photographs printed in fragments on airmail paper and assembled into collages. Both the content of the images and the method of their presentation refer to the ephemeral, fragile, and sometimes hidden quality of our existence, our relationships, and of the ever evolving sense of self, while representing a kind of a bridge between the different lives I have lived, on three different continents, a bridge to “here.” With its lightness and functionality, airmail paper becomes a fragmented canvas for the stories of our lives, the snippets from which we learn about one another. The air and the water in the images become the carriers of life, potent pregnant messengers and sustainers of life itself, while the feet pin my existence to the “here and the now.” The title of the sub-series, Many Loving Kisses!, alludes to the repetitive—and sometimes banal—language of letters. Inevitably, at the end of each of my letters to my family and friends in Latvia, I will write one version or another of “Daudz mīlu bucu!”—Many loving kisses! And every time that banal but loaded sentence will acquire a different tone and weight, depending on the story contained in the letter above it. Artist Bio Līcis-Ribak has worked as an architect, interior designer, and lecturer in Europe and in the US. She currently divides her time between her design practice and her new photography career. Līcis-Ribak has earned many recent photography awards including an Honor Award in the 9th Annual International Photography Competition, 1st place at a regional Juried Art Exhibition, and an award at the House of the European Union photography competition in Rīga, Latvia. Līcis-Ribak’s photographs have been selected for inclusion in juried photography exhibitions at the Fraser Gallery; the Minneapolis Photography Center; the Vermont Center of Photography; the PhotoPlace Gallery; the A.P.E. Gallery; and the Yeiser Art Center among others. Her lecture venues include Smith College, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the American Latvian Artist Association’s conference in New York.
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