Scratching the Surface

This is a selection from my contribution to the Flâneur – New Urban Narratives project. The Flâneur partner Kaunas Photo invited me to a two-week residency in Kaunas, Lithuania, and gave the theme: Savanorių prospektas, the longest street in Kaunas. Savanorių prospektas – a plethora of businesses and offices and not too much of housing. A busy avenue where people drive their car, park in front of a shop, rush in, get whatever they need and off they go! The spots of activity are dispersed along many kilometres of dusty, grey, noisy street. Not that many people hanging around there. It was spring 2016. I decided to photograph views on the street and to make studio photographs of merchandise from the street and to see how these two types of pictures communicate with one another. The street pictures represent the surface of Savanorių prospektas. Named The Red Army Avenue during Soviet times, also today its name is politically charged: Volunteers' Avenue. Yet the street seemed like an antithesis to its grandiose name(s): an aesthetically chaotic, kilometres long drive-through. The overall impression is somewhat run-down, albeit with random signs of development. Such as a few shimmering glass battlements and some Soviet-era apartment blocks have recently received a touch-up, such as an extra layer of thermal insulation and corrugated steel cladding painted in bright colour. Even if I first thought there was something uninviting about Savanorių prospektas, soon I was spotting unexpected inspiring views. Meanwhile the studio pictures open up a view beyond the dull surface. A consumer's view, if you like. I borrowed (or in some cases bought) objects from shops along Savanorių pr. and its immediate vicinity and photographed them in the natural light studio that I built in the living room of my flat. Edibles, decorations, plumbing parts, counterfeit design items from charity shops, orthopaedic items and such. Obviously I could cover only a fraction of the gems, but aimed for a fair variety, picking up whatever showed potential for a swell picture. As you can expect in a globalized world, majority of the offerings are imported. And nowhere else I have seen a long street so crowded by dental clinics, hence including something teeth related in the series was a must! Altogether, the studio pictures are about the mundane necessities and the bric-a-brac sold to us, and the fantasies we are fed. I spent those two weeks scratching the surface of Savanorių prospektas. With my series I wanted to share my impressions of the avenue, to show what I consider worth showing. Which involves both the interesting and the boring.