tight grip, it makes me feel safe (2021)

tight grip, it makes me feel safe is an immersive moving image installation that drifts between reality and fiction; acting as an archive of the collective queer experience, it encapsulates the power of desire, rage and hope. The project was developed and captured as an intimate performance set in a liminal place reflecting the broken-down present.

The nameless characters of the film are engaged in ritualistic acts of constriction, writhing through the dense air while binding themselves and each other. Exhibiting monstrous traits that mark them as Other, they operate unaware of a viral entity that is continuously dominating their shifting environment. A soft voice carries through the film, narrating fragmented memories, emotions and dreams. Repressed subconscious desires become an internal force that carries the potential to break the veneer of a constructed truth.

HD video installation with sound, 21 min.

Commissioned by JCDecaux & Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius as part of the JCDecaux Prize Award 2021

tight grip, it makes me feel safe, video still

tight grip, it makes me feel safe, video still


tight grip, it makes me feel safe, installation at Lithuanian Composers' Union as part of the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius JCDecaux Prize Award 2021