“Socks for John Waters”

“Less and less storyless events would occur to the wishful mind. Because of the distinct functioning of the mental immune system, which accepts ambiguously foreign entities only, a protrusion on the head as an additional organ or limb will be required in order to corrupt plain objects into the ping-story packets that will be mitigated into larger communication units further.

The storyline-driven mind activity then must look like the exchange of short epistolary novels, although the language involved is not quite the same as the literary one. The meaning here will be made during the process, similar to gold panning: repeating stages of sifting through the material will eventually make clearer what is meant, at the same time resulting in an accidental logical connections that will gradually distance its host subject, whether it is an individual or a country, from the essential topics that were foreseen to be contemplated.

Then, such a compositional stories, as if they were attorneys advocating one or another stance, can clash and debate among themselves alone, relegating their host subject to listen. The scene is now framed in rich detail and sketchy meaning, conveying mere intentions and forms, like those of Lenin’s writings.”

The “story line” exists here as a sign of wasted potential – a potential that comprises a storyless world, that loses its energy and falls into disorder through the various story lines, irreversibly consuming the so-called ‘now’. In this exhibition, the genre and style of the narrative may vary, and the important moment here is the point at which a witness or a character ‘catches’ the plot in order to appear within it, to begin his or her own storytelling.

Image: objects in the show; photo by author. Portrait and Instagram “stories” post by Rytis Saladžius;

Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, 2024

Darius Mikšys, 2025