Laura Dzelzytė

The Keeper of Crossed Roads at Museum Beelden aan Zee invites you into a spatial experience through a series of wax sculptures by the British–Lithuanian artist Laura Dzelzytė. Drawing on her personal experience of migration, sustained engagement with public collections, and research into vernacular heritage, she explores themes of home, memory and cultural inheritance. Dzelzytė treats cultural objects as living repositories of human experience. She uses wax casting to give them new bodies and new meanings, exploring how memories and cultural inheritance can evolve while remaining connected to their origins.
 

The Keeper of Crossed Roads forms part of an ongoing series in which Dzelzytė translates architectural fragments, domestic objects, devotional artefacts, and vernacular forms into wax. The exhibition’s starting point is a carved oak Rūpintojėlis (Pensive Christ) by Lithuanian folk sculptor Algirdas Butkevičius. 
 

Lithuania has a layered Christian history. The country was not officially Christianised until 1387, making it one of the last pagan regions in Europe. Yet older traditions persisted, and Catholic practices became intertwined with pre-Christian rituals, symbols and folk beliefs. Religious images therefore often acquired meanings that extended beyond ecclesiastical doctrine. The Rūpintojėlis became a familiar statuette in the Lithuanian landscape, along roads, at crossroads, in chapels and near homes. As a silent companion, it was associated with moments of departure, loss and return. Against this background, Dzelzytė’s choice of the Rūpintojėlis takes on added significance: the image reflects a culture in which old and new traditions, departure and belonging, come together.


Dzelzytė transforms the wooden sculpture into a constellation of translucent wax figures that glow like votive candles, evoking memories of village churches, roadside shrines, and domestic rituals of remembrance. For Dzelzytė, who left Lithuania more than a decade ago, the work reflects on what remains when returning home is no longer possible. Home continues to exist in the form of fragments: objects, gestures, prayers, scents and stories that acquire new meanings over time.

The title The Keeper of Crossed Roads refers not only to crossroads, but above all to roads that have been crossed– to lives shaped by journeys taken, missed opportunities, changed identities and stories that span generations. The Pensive Christ appears as a witness to these movements: a guardian of roads travelled and roads left behind.

This is the first exhibition at Museum Beelden aan Zee devoted to wax sculpture. For Dzelzytė, wax is a material in constant transition. This quality resonates with her exploration of how cultural inheritance is passed on and given new meaning over time. No casting is identical to the original; each carries traces of its origin while taking on a new form. Her works form a living archive of migration and memory.