Queen of Wands

Queen of Wands – “You might want to bow a little before entering the house. As soon as we enter, we’re greeted by the sour, smoke-infused smell of dried plums. As our eyes adjust to the darkness, we may not notice an old cane in its corner, all bent over from its owner’s senescence. We turn left into the kitchen… The only decorative element is a carved shelf barely hanging on the wall, housing a row of wooden cups gleaming under greasy lips and fingers. Almost every one contains a hollow egg. On each egg, as if painted in watercolor, are representations of plants, animals and people, telling their story in tiny script. Perhaps these eggs had sentimental significance for their owners, so that their relatives couldn’t decide whether to keep them or throw them away”.

Queen of Wands is a collection of stories and drawings by artist Dovilė Šimonytė. In the summer of 2020, Šimonytė was invited to contribute work to Timemaker, an exhibition at Pamarys Gallery in Juodkrantė (Lithuania), curated by Marija Repšytė and Žilvinas Landzbergas. The exhibition combined folk art objects from Lithuania National Museum of Art and contemporary artists’ works. For the exhibition, Šimonytė created a card deck named Queen of Wands. The narratives are based on exhibited pieces and interpretations of random-drawn Tarot cards.