Rasa Šulca’s solo exhibition “PARASOMNIA”

From 26 July to 15 September 2018, Rasa Šulca’s solo exhibition PARASOMNIA will be on view at NOASS Arts Centre.

Parasomnia or sleeplessness is a form of sleep disturbance that is characterized by certain behaviours while a person is sleeping. However, here the focus will be on quite exceptional disturbances, or expression beyond the control of the mind, which leads to moments of internal lucidity somewhere in the intermediate zone between dreams and consciousness.

 Sleeping people are not only capable of simply murmuring and snoring. A case in point is a musician from New York named Dion Macgregor, who, while sleeping, tends to provide a report on his dreams in the form of a conversation. Sometimes, a person will carry out activities in his sleep that he has never carried out in real life; moreover, doing so at a professional level. During the day, Lee Hadwin works in a hospital, but at night he turns into an artist, who creates “strange and fantastic works of art”. The most interesting thing is that, while awake, Hadwin is not remotely capable of drawing anything akin to that which he creates during the night.

      However, this is not yet all – sometimes, a person can find himself in an unusual state between sleep and wakefulness, when, having released the tension stemming from a long and arduous day, he comes into contact with his inner *me*. The exhibition showcases a cycle of artworks (paintings and video), which depicts this special and magical moment, when a person has liberated himself from the onerous chains of reality as experienced in the surrounding world, and now focuses his attention on his inner world. Just occasionally, a light suddenly startles the mind and we “see” something we’ve never seen before. All that remains is to accept this strange flow and not to attempt to drive away the images you can see, sense or hear. While one person may be overcome by inner peace, bliss, indescribability or a state of timelessness, someone else may consider this state to be perfectly ordinary. No matter what feelings describe this state of insomnia, one thing is quite clear: at such times, a person becomes especially beautiful.

 

About the artist:

Rasa Šulca is a graduate of the Art Academy of Latvia’s Painting Department. In 2003, she received a Master’s degree in humanities, specializing in art.

To date, she has had five solo exhibitions and taken part in several group exhibitions in Latvia and overseas. Her works can be found in the collections of  Mūkusala Art Salon, as well as in private collections in Latvia, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Her most important cycles of painting are Model at the 1st Floor Gallery (2008), Securityat the Latvian National Museum of Art Arsenāls Exhibition Hall (2008), Creative Workshop, LinksNabaklab Art Space (2012), Ten at MANSS Gallery (2013), Nobody Said a Thing at Mūkusala Art Salon (2015), And a Wolftogether with Dace Dēliņa-Lipska at the Kalciems Quarter Gallery in Riga (2016).

Rasa Šulca lives and works in Riga, Latvia.

According to Rasa Šulca, “The leading characters in my paintings are not really my ideal beings or strangers, but rather objects for contemplation. However, the main task of paintings is not to captivate

Exhibition open from 26th of July – 15th of September, from Wednesday – Saturday 15:00 – 22:00.

Opening 25th of July starting from 18:00

Entrance free

1. “Solveiga”,  2017, oil on canvas,160 x 210 cm. Photo: Didzis Grodzs

2.“Zane”, 2018, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm. Photo: Didzis Grodzs

Exhibition is supported by: State Culture Capital Foundation