“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.”― Hermann Hesse
Water is in itself a path and a purpose. Silence – a condition for hearing oneself.
The main focus of Mindaugas Gabrenas’ photography series Slow Flow, is the same as the method chosen by the artist himself – a dialogue with oneself, an endless journey, transforming time into space, space into picture, within which the extinguished flow of time can be felt.
While closely observing the surrounding world with the inner child’s eyes and listening to himself, the author creates a series of eternal wander through the maze of archetypal, abstract and universal concepts. It is the classical motif of a human journey towards oneself, unavoidable fusion with nature, Almighty. The Becoming.
Time is no less significant element of this series. Immanent in photography as a medium, thanks to long exposure it becomes visible and physically tangible. Silent and slow in the photographs, it sharply contrasts with mundane reality.
The silhouettes of people lost in time and space are unrecognisable, drowned in external or perhaps within internal worlds with no clear boundaries between them. Loneliness and longing, as a source of inspiration as well as the integral contemporary human condition, become evidently palpable.
Precise composition, unusual spaces and subtle details lure the viewer into the slightly melancholy mood of the photographs. The mold that appears on the old film negative creates a natural screen, protecting from the preposterous daily rhythm and forcing one to stop and listen.
Slow Flow is an instant, when the suddenly calm water turns into a mirror. It is a unique opportunity to hear yourself. It is an invitation for self-reflection, for encounter one’s own emotional experiences, for return from immersive socialisation to individuality, from smart intellect to primal emotion, from overwhelming daily routine and crowd – to subtle personal exigency and oneself.
