Pensive Christ - II

Artists Lina Jonikė and Mantas Talmantas. --- The prototype used for this NFT is 200x125 cm. photograph covered with an embroidered transparent plastic. Author of the prototype - Lina Jonikė. --- The Rūpintojėlis, or Pensive Christ, appears often as a carved figurine in Lithuanian folk art, and for many has become a symbol synonymous with the Lithuanian character. The photograph of this work portrays the artist’s seated husband as her “pensive one”. By covering his naked figure with a garment embroidered in plastic, she creates an icon of him, making him a saint out of the ordinary man who cares for her in everyday life. For this diptych, Jonikė used a novel idea: covering the naked body with an article of clothing, a towel, or scarf, embroidered in plastic. This later evolved into Lina’s “trademark“ – an iconography reflecting the artist’s style. Recognized on numerous occasions as the best artist in Lithuanian and international textile art biennials, Lina Jonikė is a conceptual embroiderer and teaches embroidery techniques to the students of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Her works are featured at the National Čiurlionis Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania, the Angers Textile Museum in France, and in private collections in Lithuania and abroad. --- NFT was realised by Mantas Talmantas who is an educator as well as artist and film maker. Talmantas specialises in fields of animation, illustration, 3D animation, photogrammetry and VR. Graduated from Vilnius art academy and international school of new media in Lubeck, where he studied photography, documentary filmmaking and media technologies. His first VR film was screened in FOFEST, New York 2016.