Sep 13

Ignas Maldus

Ignas Maldus is an experimental photographer who has exhibited consistently in Lithuania since 2006. He travels all over the world in order to capture his complex subject matter. Recent solo exhibitions include features at Santaros-Šviesa, The National : Kanaus drama theatre, and Galeria Urbana. Other exhibitions include a site specific project at the 10th Kaunas Biennial, a retrospective at Studio Casa inKanaus, and solo exhibitions at Technology Museum in Vilnius, Suflerio Būdelė Gallery, and Rudinsko Graphic Gallery. Ignas has also been featured in collections and the catalogue of Saatchi Art.

The photography relies primarily on two techniques; Ignas either paints his subjects with colored lights and then uses long exposures ranging from hours to minutes to capture them or he uses color filters on his lens. Containing strategic color, Ignas paints subjects typically representing derelict and abandoned scenes such as junk yards or condemned buildings and sites. Most of Ignas’ photography does not contain people and nor do they need to because these environments give off plenty of statements and aesthetics on their own.

Typically depicting destroyed, aged interiors or retired vehicles such as ships, planes, and carnival rides, Ignas’ work reveals a beauty around the art of decay. Rusted steel and corroded walls adorn these compositions and are given new life as they are painted with bright colored lights and hued filters. These colors breathe life into these deceased inanimate subjects as the long exposure creates a blending of the light on the subject to appear naturally painted with a multi-colored interior or exterior light source. Ignas discovers beauty in some of the world’s most remote and desolate locations and captures their images on film, reinterpreting their significance through aesthetically pleasing brightly colored painted light and filters. In a sense, Ignas reignites his subjects, instilling a sense of rejuvenation instead of capturing these areas in their natural form.

Magic No. 1 (pictured above) depicts a remote location in Indonesia of a Malaysian airplane salvaged by Australians. The derelict plane remains aged and corroded while Ignas paints an orange-red light to the left of the plane as if she were ready to take off. The cool blue and green tints to the right create a sense of high contrast. The lighting in the shot creates the appearance as if the subject were captured using expired and damaged polaroid film, further instilling an aged and rusted surface to compliment the retired plane.

Ignas Maldus creates fascinating photography which highlights the significance of some of earth’s most forgotten and remote locations. He remains an artist who restores life and recreation into expired machinery, vehicles, and interiors through imaginative lights and a youthful spirit. These aesthetically pleasing works communicate a bridge between the immediate past and presenting them to an eager contemporary audience. Ignas reinterprets his identified surroundings and places markers on them signifying their presence as his own making through the painting of light, colored filters, and a great sense of contrast with grainy surfaces.