Kārlis Vītols

Kārlis Vītols

The Journey to America

Artist’s main medium is the eye of the camera – in the form of photographs and video – which is focused on the solitude of an individual living on the outside. The artist has created an exhibition about a journey to America which never took place, echoing the current conditions of isolation which disrupt plans and force us to be content with the alternatives available in the imagination.

The future artist and director Kārlis Vītols was captivated by the transparencies made during the journey to America by his grandfather, artist-decorator, Aleksis Kalniņš. In 1997, inspired by a shot of a skyscraper, Vītols made his second film, about an ambitious screenwriter who wants to conquer America. The material was edited and soundtracked in 2020, revealing how the image of the land of opportunity, generated in culture, made the young people of the 90s wander between dreams and reality, longing replaced by sad resignation.

The behaviour characteristic of a visitor, with silent observation and a sense of isolation or not belonging, is present in both grandfather’s photographs and grandson’s watercolours. In contrast to Kalniņš‘ ideal landscapes, which are virtually devoid of people, in his series of works on paper, Vītols turns to the inhabitants of America. In his imagination he merges recently explored Google Maps street views with a collage of culture-historical characters, where gold diggers, cowboys, roadside motel visitors and inhabitants of foldable houses from abandoned corners of Middle America have been frozen in time.

For the series of black-and-white watercolours, the fascination with the photographic works of Inta Ruka (1958) and Ansel Adams (1902 – 1984) was the inspiration to play on the elements characteristic of this medium – the classical square format, fine gradations of grey, posing for the camera, out-of-focus faces and variations of a single composition seemingly resulting from the process of development. These imaginary personages drift between stylised cartoon characters, real people and the artist’s patented mutants. The Americans gathered here look expectantly at the exhibition’s visitors, awaiting the moment they will be brought to life in their imagination and allowed to inhabit, and not merely visit, their place.