Indrė Šerpytytė, Ffotogallery

Exploring history, individual and collective memory and loss, Lithuanian artist Indrė Šerpytytė exhibits a solo exhibition at Ffotogallery, Cardiff. Opening 7 September and running until 12 October, the showcase coincides with Lithuania taking up the Presidency of the European Union. Based in London Šerpytytė produces photography relating to her family history and that of Lithuania, her native country, immediately prior to its independence from Soviet occupation.

Her recent series 1944 – 1991 examines anti-Soviet resistance in Lithuania, the so-called “war after the war”. Šerpytytė uses her images to invoke the memory of these events by visiting actual sites, including photographing the forests of the so called “forest brothers” and former houses of NKVD-NKGBMVD-MGB Soviet forces. She transforms the documented sites into beautiful photographic images that echo a sense of loss. The houses she captures become still and silent, completely sealed they contain memories inside them, while the surrounding forests are indifferent, representing absent memory.

Indrė Šerpytytė, 7 September – 12 October, Ffotogallery, at Turner House, Plymouth Road, Penarth CF64 3DH.

Credits
1. From A State of Silence, 2006 © Indre Serpytyte.