Grimaces of the Weary Village
Rimaldas Vikšraitis
White Space Gallery
Edited by Martin Parr.
Softcover
80 pages
21 cm x 30 cm
2010
ISBN 9780955739460
Slightly insane and wonderfully surreal, Rimaldas Vikšraitis’ images of abandonment in deepest rural Lithuania mix reportage and voyeurism to surreal and disturbing effect. His studies of drunkenness and dereliction are depressing but also display a strange beauty: a farmer bends over a dead pig with a blowtorch, a chicken perched on his back; a young girl stares out of a window over the decapitated head of a goat; and, a drunk bites the ear of another drunk who is biting the ear of a pig’s head on a plate. This book is a beautifully printed testament to Vikšraitis’ strange, frightening and darkly humorous world.
(source: https://www.whitespacegallery.co.uk/publication/grimaces-of-the-weary-village/)
About the Artist
Rimaldas Vikšraitis (b. 1954, Sintautai, Lithuania) is best known for his artistic documentary photographs of rural life in his native Lithuania. In them, the habitual use of alcohol and the prevalent grime and poverty in the villages is depicted humorously, albeit with darker undertones.
(source: https://www.lensculture.com/rimaldas-viksraitis)
About the Publisher
White Space Gallery in London was founded in 2001. They show and publish a wealth of work by Eastern European artists.
whitespacegallery.co.uk
(source: http://www.whitespacegallery.co.uk/about/)
