Egidija Ciricaite
London, UK
www.egidija.com
IG : @egidija

POEM VI (river song II)
2024
Ethereal layers of 6gsm Tengujo Kashmiri paper in Chinese caligraphy paper cover
7 x 9.2

Artist Statement

Based on River Song by Li Bai, the book consists of 6 hand typewritten layers of 6gsm 6gsm Tengujo Kashmiri paper bound with an invisible thread into a clean blank Chinese calligraphy paper cover. The pages are light and airy, silky and smooth like the surface of the river. They build the poem, following the flow of its rhythm, sound and thought, together with the jade flutes and golden pipes that fill the air.

The book continues my recent body of typewriter works, which often exist in the twilight space between artist book, visual poetry and performance. It is part of a small series of books, which explore the vocal and emotional rhythms and spaces of poetry, with a particular current focus on Chinese poetry (following my resent trip to western China).

As an artist, I play with and around language through writing, typewriting, publishing, performance and academic research, creating nebulous worlds at the periphery of linguistic experience. Often bilingual, marked by ethereal layers of spoken or written words, my books question definite nature of linguistic encounter.

I use typewriter as a printmaking tool, exploring “typing” as a metaphor for weaving and “weaving” as a metaphor for writing and speaking. Inspired by south Lithuanian textiles, my work exists in the twilight space between poetry, print and performance. My books are composed as a score between the visual and the verbal, the verbal and the aural, the aural and the auratic, the auratic and the material.

My practice is informed by my research and interests in linguistics, with a particular focus on cognitive pragmatics and relevance theory. My interests in linguistics traverse into aesthetics theory and literary arts.

I was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. I am now based in London, pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD at the Slade, UCL and UCL Linguistics, London.