Artist talk: Nurbol Nurakhmet
«Exploring the theme of the Anthropocene, in my work I consider man’s invasion on Nature. A man leaves his mark in nature, and this trace signifies absence. Tearing and cutting out layers of earth, a well, and quarry: these acts reflect our consumerist attitude towards Nature. Nature does not tolerate emptiness and in every possible way tries to fill it. During this residence, I made two works. The first one is about the extraction of marble, and how the marble quarry is a crude museum. Before starting work, I visited the Acropolis Museum.
People think that museums are primarily cultural and that we visit museums in order to enrich ourselves culturally. We have been in two museums, the Acropolis Museum and the Benaki Anthropological Museum. It was very interesting to see the result of what influential dictators did. People view these artifacts as cultural heritage, without thinking about how many lives were sacrificed to create the artifacts – and all because of the strange desire to leave a trace for posterity.
My second work is connected with water, with the return of a person who came out of the water, and then returned back to the water. People’s consumerist attitude to Nature leads to a similar kind of return, as toxic substances return back to people in the food they eat. People eat fish, which feed on algae and microorganisms; these microorganisms spread toxic substances throughout marine food chains, chains that include fish we eat; these toxic substances are then ingested by humans as a result of the pollution of oceans, seas, and rivers.
Diving is a bit of a scary experience. In the sea, in places where the sun’s rays do not reach, you are in complete darkness. Darkness for a man is an absence of light; conversely, the presence of light is the absence of darkness. In the darkness, a person does not feel safe, because they cannot see what is nearby. At the same time, there is a certain mystery in immersion. Diving into the depths can be a step towards self-knowledge»
Nurbol Nurakhmet was born in 1986 in Almaty, Kazakhstan 2012 got his MFA in San Francisco Academy of art university.
Currently working and living in Almaty.
