August, September residents: Angelė Šyvokaitė, Yvette Bathgate & Jake Shepherd

During the months of August and September, the skudde sheep flock is herd by artist Angelė Šyvokaitė and an artist duo Yvette Bathgate & Jake Shepherd.

Angelė Šyvokaitė is an artist living in Vilnius, Lithuania. She finished a bachelor’s degree in 2025 in painting (Vilnius Academy of Arts) and now she’s studying master’s degree in painting (Vilnius Academy of Arts) as well. Šyvokaitė’s practice explores themes of personal change, co-living with other-than-humans and aspirations. The surrounding environment in her work becomes a medium of connecting with others. Even though painting is her main medium, Šyvokaitė often uses other mediums like knitting, embroidery, needle felting, plasticine, etc. She is very excited to be here in the Spinners residency and to try out all of the crafts, the shepherding and getting the feel of the land. 

Yvette Bathgate (she/her) and Jake Shepherd (he/they) are an artist duo from Scotland, based in Estonia. Both studied their BA (Hons) at Grays School of Art (2017/18) and completed their MA in Estonian Academy of Art (2025). They began working together within the collectives Tendency Towards (2016-2021), and Tactics for Togetherness (2021-current), and have initiated various projects as a duo. Most recently, collaborating on an ongoing project, ‘a space to gather a place to grow’, within the Estonian Contemporary Art Museum’s community garden, where they are currently the garden caretakers. The duo were selected for the funded Nordic and Baltic Artists Residency at Skaftfell, Seyðisfjörður (2025) and both are guest lecturers at the Estonian Academy of Arts. 

They make and think through investigating models of collectivity, fostering collaboration in their practice. The intersection of ecology and care, and the traces and relics of these systems, root their research. Various projects have taken the form of a library, learning programmes, workshops, reading groups, performances, dinners, events and a community greenhouse, and often take on curatorial and socially engaged approaches.

Both have worked as artists in various community settings; hospitals, schools, community gardens, alternative educational spaces, and activist groups have been the settings where they’ve learned about their values as artists and shaped how their creative practice is positioned. This work is both a part of their practice as well as directly informing and contextually underpinning the material outcomes that are a result of the explorations, reflections, and questioning of the context of this work, including the methods and structures that are interwoven throughout it. They understand this work is political and that politics of care and collectivity cannot be untangled from wider social underpinnings.

Photo: Kristina Žalytė
Graphic design: Inga Navickaitė-Drąsutė