I had a dream once, that I took my skull out of my head so I could have a better look at it. After examining it for a while, I decided to to take a picture of it. It was dark in my room, there were no suitable lights around, so I brought my skull outside, placed it on a bench and took a picture. But then I was suddenly struck by a realisation that my skull was no longer sterile, it now had loads of dust and bacteria, and if I put it back, I might have ended up with a blood infection or something like that. I tried to find a way out by calling my old friend, a microsurgeon Darius Jauniškis, asking him to secure me an emergency operation in the hospital...
I don’t remember how the dream ended, but I think I was still skull-less before I woke up.
If the dream were to become a reality, a proper sterilisation of the skull would not be possible, and other means would need to be sought in order to sove this problem. Perhaps, some sort of a prosthesis would be needed. In this case, I tried to investingate the possibilities of portraiture with a kettle incorporated as a substitute for a skull. I created a system of kettle-craniometry which allowed me to paint Homo Catinus (the kettle human) according to the Western European traditions of portraiture.
Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714–1780) was a Lithuanian poet who left no trustworthy documental portraits of himself. How should he be portrayed? This case became the starting point for the ‘Picture Demand’ project.
The cult of personality sometimes manifests through the desire to acquire the likeness of an adorned leader. According to the classical scientists, things like body language, dressing style, facial expression and the shape of the skull were all traits of personality. By copying Oginskis’ craniometric points from one of his portraits, I tried to become a diplomat, politician, an uprising leader, and a composer.
"IN" —these are the two letters that separate the name of Žygimantas Augustas (1520–1572), the Great Duke of Lithuania and the King of Poland, from my own name. This grammatical difference becomes a pretext for an impersonation.
