KELIN

2015

Plastic bags, polycarbonate sheet.

600×400 cm.

Partly a collective participatory project that involves collecting plastic bags. People bring me the bags so I can turn it to a material for creating the artwork. The variety is important so I asked to collect different colors, brands, sizes and ordinary trash plastic bags on Facebook. I asked people not to throw plastic bags out but to collect them and to bring them to me. Also, I invited volunteers to work with me. In august 2015 we met with volunteers at ART POINT which was a cultural socially oriented platform at the time in Almaty. I prepared 2 sheets of polycarbonate (each was 200×600 cm). Pieces of colorful plastic bags were glued with melted silicon glue to a cover of polycarbonate.

My idea was to make a massive archetypal image of a Kazakh bride with the sag of recycled materials brought by general public. The image of the bride itself is based on the archival photo that I have used for another artwork in prior to the monumental public art piece for ARTBAT. The artwork is Three Bride, 2015. Plastic bags on board. 100×140 cm

When the work KELIN was finished, it was hanged over the pedestrian street in Almaty. Under the work I placed some urban furniture with artificial grass so the viewer can lay on it and observe the artwork from the below. The sun was going through the eyes of the Bride and generally adding up to the overall color palette of the artwork. The artwork stands for my continuous research of time, history and its place in the the contemporary practices. The artwork takes further step from my paintings as it deals directly with public in the site-specific environment. The piece is based on the past while its deconstruction happens now and here in the complex context of the identity search that involved not only the creative minds but simply the people that are also inseparable part of this process.