Saturday, September 12, at 4 p.m. The Klaipėda Gallery of the Klaipėda Branch of the Lithuanian Artists’ Union (6 Bažnyčių St.) will host the opening of the exhibition “Visa-ta(i)” by artist and traveler Ieva Rutė. Curated by Danguolė Ruškienė. This is already the second presentation of Rutė’s work in Klaipėda. Working in various media, the artist brings together different elements of life in a single exhibition, from which her personal universe takes shape. In this solo exhibition, the world that the artist experiences and creates—the world in which she lives—gradually unfolds. It is a space where time, as most of us perceive it, does not exist. Here, it is different.
The exhibition consists of three main sections. In the first section, Rutė presents a dozen or so tea and coffee newspapers created in 2025–2026, as well as “tea time machines”—devices that create moments for tea with loved ones. The second part of the exhibition explores neurodiversity and the confinement of the fragile human psyche within the “cage of normality.” In the third part, the artist presents homes that are not only filled with our dreams and hopes, but also with our fears. The exhibition will run until October 24.
The exhibition “Visa-ta(i)” creates a multilayered world in both a visual and verbal sense. Its sense of time is also multifaceted, and thus defies the conventional perception of time. Here, the artist reflects on her experiences, interwoven with musings, insights, dreams, hopes, and those moments that evoke entirely different emotions: anxiety, tension, and ultimately—fear. Rutė weaves together the most significant elements of her life at this moment into a single narrative. She begins her narrative at its origins and invites viewers into the space of her father—the self-taught painter Petras Rutė (1934–2016)—an exhibition at the Nishi Gallery (KLAVB). The artist then moves toward the present day. In her solo exhibition at the Klaipėda Gallery, she presents not only her own work but also testimonies and artifacts that mark her close connections with others.
Part of the exhibition is dedicated to honoring the Japanese master of ceramics and wood-fired kilns, Sensei Masakazu Kusakabe (1946–2023) (The Teacher’s Room, 2019–2020). Rutė served as his personal assistant and student for several years. They traveled together to a ceramics symposium in Northern Cyprus, and in Japan, she built wood-fired kilns at Sensei’s studios in Miharu and Mashiko. In 2022–2023, as Japan reopened after the pandemic, the artist spent the final months of her Teacher’s life with him and, together with his family, saw him off into eternity. Rutė strives to preserve her Teacher’s legacy. In this exhibition, she creates an intimate space where everyone can get to know Sensei Masakazu Kusakabe through his books, ceramics, and sketchbooks.
In *Inviting Tea* (*Time for Tea 2026*), the author creates a world in which togetherness becomes the axis of existence, and tea itself serves as a medium for that togetherness to flourish. Tea leaves, like writing instruments, document the minutes spent in the company of a friend and create “tea traces”—marks left by tea leaves on photographic paper. A specific time spent in the company of a particular person over tea is recorded using devices constructed by the artist. And it doesn’t matter whether that person is physically here, on another continent, or has already passed into eternity. Anyone can be invited to share a cup of tea. Physical contact isn’t necessary, and the concept of closeness takes on a much broader meaning. “Time drips drop by drop through the tea leaves, flows into the cup, and drips through its pores onto a porcelain saucer made from tea leaves soaked in porcelain and already fired. It fills the spaces left by the leaves; by coloring them, it brings the leaves back into existence, where everything exists only in our consciousness.”
Emerging images. Tea time is inscribed with tannins on the filter, which changes daily and adorns itself with fractal patterns of tea time. “All of this is about the fragility and transience of life and relationships, the constant flux, where the only thing that is real is what is happening at this very moment,” says the author. In this way, the devices she uses become a kind of “tea-time machine,” functioning in a way entirely different from how most people tend to imagine them. Rutė admits that nothing in her exhibition is “normal”—perhaps because, for her, “normality” becomes a cage from which she strives to break free.
The installation *Shifting Forms* (*In the Cage of Normality*, 2023–2024) addresses neurodiversity and the imprisonment of the fragile human psyche in the “cage of normality.” Contrasting materials—fragile porcelain sheets and coarse wire—highlight the possible union of differences within a single structure. The resulting tension breaks through the enclosure of the form and seems to burst out from within the frame, affirming that normality is not an immutable given. It is merely a concept defined by cultural and social conventions. Thus, it is not as unshakable as it may seem.
One of the most important themes of the exhibition is home (Home, 2025). “We try to live as best as we can. We try to create homes that hold our dreams, hopes, and fears. I build the main framework of the house out of fireclay. I fill the structure with thin sheets of porcelain, which I lay—before firing—on wrapping paper reminiscent of my childhood, featuring the rings of the 1980 Olympics. Layers of porcelain and paper are rolled up and wedged between the rough frames of the structure, highlighting the fragility of human life and consciousness. The entire structure is fired for three days in an anagama kiln, allowing the fire and the flames of life to burn the paper as a symbol of fading memories. Fire and flames give the final form to the damaged structure, which gazes through fragile windows of love that tremble and crumble every time they are touched by the guilt I feel for not having been as good as my loved ones had hoped,” says the artist. The houses she creates are constantly changing. Fragile porcelain petals break and crumble throughout the work’s entire lifespan—during transport, when touched, and as they travel through the exhibition halls.
Constant change—this is the author’s central idea and message, which permeates the entire content of the exhibition: “Transience is an inseparable quality even of such durable materials as fired clay and porcelain. It is as eternal as it is temporary.” Thus, transience is understood here not as the opposite of eternity, but as one of its forms. Even that which appears durable and unchanging is subject to the influence of time, the environment, relationships, and constant transformation. In the exhibition, transience becomes not a sign of loss, but rather a condition of existence. That which is, inevitably changes. And that which appears eternal always contains within itself the possibility of transience.
