Tomas Daukša (born in 1988, Palanga, Lithuania) is an artist whose dream is to catch a marlin. It's a type of fish from the billfish family with an elongated snout, similar to a swordfish. According to the Lithuanian Encyclopedia, marlins can grow up to 5 meters in length and weigh up to 900 kilograms. This dream is somewhat similar to his artistic practice. It doesn't just navigate between the ordinary, naivety, impossibility, and deep immersion into a specific area; it also manipulates our beliefs with real and fabricated facts. Despite having the option to study biophysics, T. Daukša chose to pursue painting studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. After completing his studies and later defending his doctoral project in art, the artist demonstrated that both biology and physics could be creatively integrated. In his early work, T. Daukša experimented with light, sound, and electric fields. In projects like „The System“ (1-8) (2013-2014), the artist explored the concept of a closed logical system, creating works where one part depended on another. For instance, in the work „Lucerna Sonitum“ (2015), light produced sound, and sound produced light. Despite the minimalist and often strict technical expressions prevalent at the time, all of Daukša's projects have been characterized by irony and speculative rhetoric. Over time, the artist's work has embraced a wider variety of forms and materials, combining them eclectically. T. Daukša's art becomes a complex process directly dependent on the narrative he constructs and the unpredictable external circumstances. In an attempt to test the stability of systems, the artist creates unexpected and even absurd precedents, scenarios, and events. One could argue that humor becomes a fundamental artistic strategy for him, allowing him to address serious topics. The artist also recreates a social representation, encouraging identification or opposition to certain characters. All these aspects reveal that beneath the vividly colored or often even infantile surface of the artist's work lies a dense network of conceptual content.

Fountains: Fountains of Joy, 2021 – present, various sizes, ceramics, porcelain, silicone, glass fiber, various liquids
Shinning objects: Drowsy Lanterns, 2023 – present, various sizes, metal, silicone, glass fiber, light

Water, the essential and best-known element of all liquids, is also deceptive and shape-shifting. Water can be mixed, replaced or supported by various other liquids. In the most primitive sense, fluids are necessary for our survival, but at the same time we cannot rely on them. Since liquids are important to us, we constantly have to check that the liquid we are about to consume is not going to cheat us. One of the examples of such states of uncertainty is the question: "Is it possible to drink water from the tap in Lithuania?" (Yes, it is possible).

We are constantly in tension between ourselves and fluids, although the modern world should be freed from this extremely dangerous ambiguity. The abundance of chemical and industrial fluids and pollution exacerbates this tension. One such area of ​​uncertainty is the fountain. Despite its seemingly endless variations, the fountain is a place and object where liquids are simultaneously present in both reality and imagination. Often the fountain blurs the lines between reality and imagination.

A design object, a sacred place, a playground, an urban object, a myth, a work of art, a living being – these are just a few iterations of the fountain. It can be argued that by getting rid of excess fluids, every living thing falls into the category of a fountain.