Image, picture and word in contemporary art

The subject of this article is the multimedia art of the 21th century, made of texts and images. Considering the peculiarities of the image/text as an art practice and theoretical concept, the interaction between images and words in these works of art is analysed in the aspects of expression and content. Although it would be quite difficult to find a contemporary picture without letters or accompanying phrases, the multimedia art works still are suspicious marginalia in the field of visual arts evoking associations with popular culture and mass communication. Material files for such image/text still are under the process of invention, and almost every time they look like a temporary exception. Three artists under discussion - Staselė Jakunskaitė, Marta Vosyliūtė and Rūta Spelskytė - try to figure out how to include the meaning of sentences into their works without spoiling the pictures or engravings with such texts. For those, interested in the image and word relations in multimedia works, it would be quite logical to expect the dominant distribution of functions of elements characteristic to cinema or comic books. Nevertheless, the relations between images and words in the works under discussion are closer to meta-textual, inter-textual and intermedia relations. This could be related to the fact that this type of art is intertex- tual and inter-iconic, as well as to its exposed introspection and possibly also the often criticized traditions of art dissemination or producing narrative fine art. Such interchange between visuality and figurativeness becomes a subject or purpose of the works. Jakunskaitė attempts to free her imagination and language by straightforward illustrations of the tropes and broken metaphors. Functioning as a pitiless mincer, Vosyliūtė’s undivided imagination redistributes sensations, ruins the viewer’s former knowledge and forces to doubt anything, especially - one’s memory. Spelskytė makes her viewers work, commands them to revise their knowledge, and the work area for their imaginations is her engravings demanding their tremendous contribution, rather than texts. The multimedia works or image/texts suit well for educating an industrious, emancipated viewer, because they allow him/her to follow the perception process lasting in time, and treat it as a job. The aspiration for freedom, sovereignty and peaceful co-existence of words and images in this art of dual expression could also be looked upon as political