Christine Vilutis

Statement

For Chicago artist Christine Vilutis, her innermost self is an enigma lost in the twists of family lore. Compelled to work out this mystery after her son’s birth, she creates personal and vulnerable collages where family photograph meets historical document. Her discipline untangles myths and stories, unravelling wisps of herself and supplying connection to elusive roots.
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Collage is a joyous and hands-on experience for Vilutis. Her sources are old photographs of relatives, historical and modern ephemera, and even Lithuanian textiles and weavings. Taking advantage of a background in psychology, the process begins with journaling about a photograph. Then the image and related papers are cut and moved about. This is much like groping blindly through mist. The artist searches for the most evocative composition that will connect the disparate fragments while keeping in mind insights gained from journaling. Once a final composition is selected, the pieces are glued in place.

The collages explore the personal and political intersections between the interior and exterior, where life’s fault lines signal both the sensual and the searing, both pleasure and pain. A wide range of influences inflect the work. Vilutis finds inspiration in contemporary visuals found on Instagram, such as the works of Changang Lee, Julie Liger-Belair, and Bill Noir. Also important are works from other disciplines, such as the writings of Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Michael Ondaatje, and James Baldwin. Such influences seep into the physical and visual craft of an art that probes how time folds over itself, overlapping the present with the past.

The work is personal and passionate. Vilutis thinks of her young son and what she wishes to show him of his displaced family and their struggle to live in the United States. Their dreams infuse her images, as does her love for art and story. The poet Carolyn Forche, an important influence for the artist, writes that one must choose “ourselves or nothing”. Vilutis chooses her family, her work and herself, channeling the calm and chaos of story into images that illuminate her identity.