Decad is pleased to present the second exhibition of its gallery programme: a solo show by Lithuanian video artist Emilija Škarnulytė (b. 1987 in Vilnius). The exhibition showcases multimedia works that introspect the Anthropocene – the current geological epoch in which human activity makes a significant impact on the planet's ecosystems. In recent years, this term has received much attention from the fields of politics, geography, environmental studies, and the arts. Škarnulytė's works offer an interpretation that is simultaneously personal and shared, fictional and documentary.

The artist finds her film subjects in personal stories, specific geographical locations, mythical characters, scientific knowledge production, and political and economic projects. Quite often, the final work offers a hybrid of two or more, disclosing a fraction of the multiple connections from a larger object – a hyper-object. Environment is perceived as a borderless, contagious and tentacular event, rather than a fixed idea or a steady object. Her moving image creates moments of transgression wherein artificial loops of deep time, physical perception, and environmental havoc are interlaced together by a poetic, aesthetic approach.

Many of Škarnulytė’s projects begin as acts of displacement in which geography plays a significant role. The artist chooses to travel to remote locations in order to disclose various interplays of natural and artificial processes, like eerie mining activity or sedate deconstruction of a nuclear plant. As a camerawoman, she places herself in the midst of transformations or ongoing flux, taking on the role of performer and active agent.

Precise framing and selective points of view define many of her films, and play an equally important role within the spatial installations through which they are presented. Škarnulytė often chooses unusual locations to screen her works, or seeks to transform exhibition spaces by manipulating and disrupting common 'black-cube' settings. Her works thus linger between video, sculpture, and site-specific practice. Meticulously constructing exhibition settings, the artist deploys and materialises tropes that echo both cinematography and astronomy: lenses, reflections, refractions, waves, the visible and the invisible.

MANIFOLD is curated by Ignas Petronis. It will be open to visitors from Thursday through Saturday between the hours of 2pm and 7pm, and by appointment. Over the course of the exhibition, there will be a parallel public programme featuring events and screenings, including an artist talk on 9 August 2017.

For further information and the full programme schedule, visit decad.org.