Mykolas Kleopas Oginskis (1765–1833)—a duke, a diplomat, a composer who authored many mazurkas and polonaises that were known across Europe; also a political figure of both Polish Kingdom and the Great Dutchy of Lithuania. He was one of the leaders in Tadas Kostiuška’s uprising against the Russian Empire, and later he became a secret advisor to the tsar Alexander I. In 1802 Oginskis was awarded the status of an Honorary Member of the Vilnius University.
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.
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.
"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.
In order to find the limits of the lie generated by images, I explored the possibilities of incorporating a kettle into a human portrait. I created a system of kettle-craniometry which allowed me to paint Homo Catinus (the kettle human) in accordance with the Western European traditions of portraiture.
