Emilija Skarnulyte at Tate St Ives December 6, 2025 - April 12 2026

 

Emilija Skarnulyte {pronounced Scorn you Lee two} is the new artist 

at Tate St Ives

 until April 12 2026.
She is from Lithuania but has been working from a Porthmeor studio in St Ives recently.

 

 

 

The first room of her show has a video on a large screen of her blind grandmother slowly feeling around the bases of some enormous Soviet era statues which are in a park near her home. The soundtrack is of soft sounds and the ceiling is hung with aromatic herbs from Lithuania.
I sat on the bench to watch it and found it rather beautiful and thought provoking. The poem about blind men feeling an elephant and each reporting it to be something different came to mind.
The woman’s blindness was probably caused by nuclear fallout from Chernobyl. On her radio she listens to an old fable about a fisherman and a princess.

The larger gallery has some glass objects and a two sided video made in Cornwall which features the ancient stone men- an- tol.
However, these are insignificant within the huge installation of four curved screens and the back wall, on which are showing enormous projections of all sorts of images from nature. The sound is often a low sort of overwhelming roaring and there is very little seating unless you fetch a chair from the side or bag one of a few provided upholstered loungers at one end. 

 

 

I felt concerned for the staff confined in semi darkness with this booming in their ears, but was assured by a very helpful and knowledgeable young woman that they only spend an hour at a time in there.

There are four curved screens but all show the same thing.

I found it all as domineering as the soviet statues.

It also struck me as a good idea for a discotech - reminding me of the 60’s when people were stoned and moving shapes from oil trapped inside slides were moving on the walls. 
I watched as visitors seemingly bemused gave it all a few minutes of their time.

Reeling from the immersion, I staggered out gladly into daylight and the marvellous rushing waves on Porthmeor beach just opposite the gallery.

So, the first part I understood, it felt thought out and meaningful.

The second part was an unpleasant experience and not entirely clear  - the uncontrollable forces of nature versus the insignificance of humanity?

 

 

I include the artist's statement and gallery note.