Artist talk: Meruert Kunakova
«At the beginning of the residence, together with the curator and other artists, we read several texts on the topic of the Anthropocene. We held discussions and shared our opinions, which helped us to more broadly understand the topic. While on the shores of the Pagasetic Gulf, I began to reflect on the Aral Sea. More precisely, I reflected on the Sea’s absence. My work consists of two linen paintings on which satellite images of the Aral Sea drying up are printed at the edges. The bulk of the work was created using a manual printing technique called cyanotype. This photographic printing process is largely reliant on sunlight, so my laboratory was a sunny terrace. This old and rarely used technology was invented by the English physicist astronomer John Herschel. Initially, it was used to print drawings of ships and maps. The characteristic color created by this technique, as Herschel himself termed it, is Berliner blue. This rich blue color reminds me of dreams about the sea, in which the Aral Sea evokes a phantom vision. In my work, I used archive photographs from the ‘Turkestan album’, which I printed on small pieces of cloth and sewed onto the canvas. This photography album captures the life of the Central Asian peoples who lived on the territory bordering the Aral Sea.
The red thread covering most of the canvas represents the contours of the map of the Aral Sea before it dried up; the second work shows the last stage of the drying out process, where only small patches of water remained. My work is reminiscent of a patchwork quilt, which is associated with the Soviet projects to redirect water channels for irrigation purposes, and the redrawing of identity. I turned to the archive in order to emphasize the connection between the departed Kazakh culture and the dried-up sea. I wanted to create an artwork that involved a lot of manual labour, as opposed to using industrial materials and industrial methods to create art. In both of these works, you can read embroidered inscriptions: ‘Aq dalada tyrip kozimdi zhumsam kok tenizdi korem’ is inscribed on the first work, which means ‘Closing my eyes in the white desert, I see the blue sea’. I connect the second work more with the spirits in Kazakh aruaktar (“spirits” in kazakh) ; in this work there is the inscription ‘Oli tenizdin aruaktari tuzben betterin shaip tyr’, which means ‘The ancestors wash their faces with the salt of a Dead Sea”. I completed these artworks with great difficulty, and they are very personal for me. I was glad to participate in this residence. It was interesting to see other artists’ work. Greece is a country with a long history and friendly people».
Born in 1995. Meruert Kunakova graduated from the National Academy of Arts with a degree in monumental and easel painting. Works with cyanotype technology, painting, and sculpture. Based in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
