The exhibition features Monika Radžiūnaitė’s large-format textile work, “Protect Us from Evil,” created over two years using the tufting technique (2025), which was based on the last, apocalyptic book of the New Testament—the Book of Revelation. This book describes prophecies and visions, criticizes the secular system and universal decline, and presents an eschatological (from Ancient Greek ἔσχατος—last + Ancient Greek λόγος—teaching) perspective and a mystical theory of humanity’s fate. Historically, interest in this part of the Bible has consistently intensified during times of social or political crisis, which not only permeated the lives of people in the Middle Ages and the culture they created, but also increasingly affect the present day. Following her established artistic research practice, the artist conducts a comparative study of sensibilities from past eras, in which today’s catastrophism, and the apocalyptic sense of fatalism emerging in the face of constant crises and death are juxtaposed with the eschatological mindset that characterized the Middle Ages—a sensibility permeated by visions of the end of the world and its expression.
In Monika Radžiūnaitė’s work *Deliver Us from Evil* (2025), contemporary culture and current issues are explored through the long-standing tradition of Christian iconography. The work is based on the motif of the seven-headed beast emerging from the sea, as described in the Book of Revelation. In the Bible, this monster is presented as the Devil’s instrument on earth, symbolizing an aggressive, corrupt, and worldly power that demands divine worship. In the text, the seven heads are directly associated with the seven hills on which the great city (Rome) stands and the seven kings (imperial power). It is to this monster that the famous number of the Beast, 666, belongs—a number signifying forced conformity to a corrupt system. From today’s perspective, we can apply a contemporary meaning to each element of this narrative—each head takes on the meaning of today’s major centers of power, and can also be understood as the personification of major crisis points—war, ecological collapse, the increasingly frequent threats posed by new technologies that portend the end of the world, the decay of political systems, wealth inequality, or the imperceptible return of a new feudalism, demographic collapse, and the withering of spirituality. Today, the number of the Beast can be understood as digital identity, biometrics, payment control, total data surveillance, and dependence on man-made technological systems. However, this is not merely the “Unabomber’s” manifesto—every detail and limb of the beast can also represent individual misfortune or even the great sins that the artist, by presenting it to us as a unified image in the form of a beast, invites us to overcome and crush, remembering that history is full of the hardships that have accompanied humanity, and our continued existence here today offers hope for a better future. This allegorical lesson is conveyed through a playful yet intellectual interpretation of the aesthetics of past eras, allowing the artist to draw parallels and embody political, social, ecological, and technological challenges as well as cultural shifts through the interplay of thought and visual traditions.
Through the symbolism of the work “Protect Us from Evil” (2025), mythological elements, and the creatures, sprites, and monsters lurking within it, the artist creates a cultural landscape in which “phantom” memories and rediscovered narratives are situated, and a historical imagination that allows the exhibition to bring to life what has been lost due to the distance of time and cultural oblivion, yet nevertheless lies unnoticed in the cultural subconscious and can be revived in the present. By creating a situation of revelation, the artist exposes the absoluteness of today’s destructive forces as temporary and calls for the attainment of creatio nova (Latin for “new creation” or “new creation”), the ultimate eschatological renewal and transformation of the entire cosmos and humanity, which will likely give rise to new seven-headed beasts emerging from the seas.
Monika Radžiūnaitė (b. 1992), who holds a master’s degree in painting from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, reconstructs historical narratives in her work by drawing on Christian iconography, creating witty, didactic scenes that expose human folly and the shifting nature of cultural meanings. The artist deliberately misleads the viewer: by reworking symbols and signs, she reinterprets their content so that ancient iconography becomes a sharp commentary on the present, and memory—a political and spiritual instrument.
Exhibition opening: August 28 at 6:00 p.m.
“Energija” Gallery, 8 A Danės St., Klaipėda
“Energija” Gallery, 8 A Danės St., Klaipėda
Exhibition creator: Monika Radžiūnaitė
Curator: Linas Bliškevičius
Coordinators: Jurga Sutkutė and Liudas Andrikis
Textile Technologist: Dijuota Žilytė
Curator: Linas Bliškevičius
Coordinators: Jurga Sutkutė and Liudas Andrikis
Textile Technologist: Dijuota Žilytė
The project is partially funded by the Klaipėda City Municipality.
