Going out of the comfort zone: An Interview With Artist Aziza Shadenova
Still of the video “Going out of the comfort zone”
Aziza Shadenova - is one of the brightest artists of the new generation in the Central Asian contemporary art scene. She is a Kazakh artist born in Uzbekistan and raised in Kyrgyzstan. Aziza graduated from Saint Martins College and since then she is based in London. Across geographical and cultural borders her works reflect on her native background of the Post Soviet Asian region. Her multidisciplinary practice includes paintings, installations, photographs and films. She has participated in the Central Asian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, 4th Moscow International Biennale for young art,Mythologies of Central Asia group show at Sapar Gallery in NYC and many others. Especially for IADA the artist Aziza Shadenova shared her experience about working during quarantine and spoke regarding her new video work «Out of the Comfort Zone».
How are you doing during quarantine?
I am doing ok, thank you. It’s been somewhat productive for me. I have done the “Harvest” drawings that’s been quite fun to do. As well as some experimental small works on paper and since I ran out of canvases I did oil paintings on PVC Sheets. I guess its good to keep myself busy during these times, otherwise I’d go mad. But sometimes I just space out on the bed and watch films that i’ve missed out on. The main thing is maintaining the balance between being fruitful and lethargic. Oh, and I miss socialising.
THE HARVEST
Original Drawings, Gouache on Card
2020
How did you find the idea of Out of the Comfort Zone? It was your first time in Almaty?
It has been my second time in Almaty. Out of the Comfort Zone came out through pure exploration of my inner artistic practice. At this point in my life I felt that I had an urge for development, but the development wasn’t coming through naturally. It felt that I was being dishonest with myself and was trying to create something that was quite pretentious and unnatural. Every creative had an idea of ‘going out of the comfort zone’ in some way or another. So I was trying to do the same, by trying different mediums, ideas, brainstorming about what I haven’t done before. As a manifest to this idea, I’ve made this short performance, ridiculing the idea of “getting out of the comfort zone” so to speak. And trying to find out what it feels like and what it looks like in an absurd manner. I have never ice skated in my life, so to bring a little bit of motion and comedy to the performance I’ve tried to paint my self-portrait while ice skating. Self portrait has been a sort of mental metaphor for the inner search. I guess the inner search still continues and this performance has proved that it’s ok to be safe and at ease sometimes. And continue digging deeper into yourself rather than try to be someone else and do something that’s out of your character as an artist and as a person.
Let's talk about your practice of making films, it seems that it is a big part of your life but most of your films are not included in the portfolio on your website. Is cinema for you is a continuation of artistic practice or is it a simultaneous occupation? In an interview with Dazed, you said you want to return to your homeland and make a film. Are these plans still valid?
I have always dreamed of being a filmmaker. After all I’ve started my artistic practice from making films. Everything I do is interconnected. May it be an installation or a painting, I always envisioned it to be a moving image. A backdrop to a scene, or a character from the painting in the narrative story. I choose whether to flatten the subject matter down to a painting or let it move in the video format. It’s that idea of being static that intrigues me. The form sometimes really does matter. For example the work I did, titled The Unfinished Aral Sea project “Textures of Grieving” was initially meant to be a video work, as a moving image portrait of an installation scattered throughout the Aral Sea/Desert. The whole film was suppose to be about the measures of taking these big “Ikat Eye” installations to the location and placing them physically into the wet and dry grounds of Aral. But obviously due to time, location, and some financial difficulties the work turned out to be in purely static installation format and much smaller in scale. Which is still ok, but it turned out to be only a small fraction of the bigger idea. I guess my film practice had been put on hold for sometime. But I will definitely come back to that medium as I have been thinking about many things I’d like to shoot and perform in front of the camera. And yes, I still intend to make a film in my homeland, one day it will happen. Its all about time and resources at the moment. But I will work hard to annihilate these restriction one by one, and finally make something I’ve planned for a long time.
Your work for Astana Art show Textures and grieving related to Aral sea how did you feel about all of the environmental problems? Are you sensitive to ecological problems?
The main narrative of the work is exploration of how Central Asian national identity equals to the climate disaster of the Aral Sea. Through these works, I visualise the meaning of slow erosion of my ethnicity in the modern world and compare it to the disastrous shrinking of the Aral Sea. I think being conscious of your surroundings and care for the earth is always a must. However I am not as militant and over sensitive about these matters as some environmentalists are. The Aral Sea is an ecological disaster that’s been created through water supply diversions which led to its shrinking. This was part of the Soviet plan for the “White gold” - cotton to be a major export. The Greed has been killing this earth for centuries and it will happen over and over again.
Textures of grievingFabric installations (silk, wool, cotton)Wooden poles, galvanized buckets, mud.Dimensions Variable'Racing the Galaxy'Palace of Independence, Astana, Kazakhstan, 2019Photo by Saparlas
Your work for the exhibition Post Nomadic Mind reminds me of the tradition of long hair in many countries of Central Asia. Until this time it seems like social capital for a woman from this region. What inspired you? From this tradition or maybe you have a personal related story?
Precisely! Through personal relations I have observed the Central Asian woman's hardworking nature. May she be a daughter or a mother, she ties her hair in this way to work, to do or to be ready for something. When the hair is down, it’s quite uncomfortable and it stops you from being productive. It also helped me in a way to depict certain things that I wanted to portray in my artwork such as the strength and responsibility of a woman as well as the beauty and the connection with nature. I’ve also used a sheep fleece in my installation.
From the ancient times, the sheep was the main source of survival in Nomad families. The woman used each element of the sheep, from wool to the bone, providing food, clothes and many other things that she used for her home. From my point of view, the sheep was giving the woman her work and her life at the same time. In this installation, I am yet again depicting the circle of life in an abstracted presentation of time itself. The sheep prolonged the woman's life therefore women’s hair became longer and longer. The writer for Art Asia Pacific Ned Carter Miles saw the “suggestion of the compartmentalisation and containment of various traditions and styles of living within the modern context, but also the containment of women and their labor within traditions”. It’s quite unique how many meanings can ones work hold together through the eyes of different viewers.
The Homemaker,
Mixed media installation. (Polyester plaits, sheep fur, glass cylinders) dimensions variable.
At “Focus Kazakhstan: Post-Nomadic Mind,” Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London, 2018
Photo by Thierry Bal
One of the central themes as the highlight of many of your works is definitely an identity theme. The description of your biography often begins with the fact that you are a Kazakh woman who was born in Uzbekistan, lived in Kyrgyzstan and moved to London. How has your migration history affected you? What do you feel mentally each time returning to your works about Central Asia?
Coming back to Central Asia feels like a breath of fresh air. Growing up in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan affected my work immensely. Especially the remains of the Soviet regime, the crossroads between traditions and westernisation. My childhood memories had a huge impact on my work especially observing the mix of traditions and clashes of languages and mentalities of post soviet nationalities. The communications between one and other and the outside world. It seemed all quite surreal. I am fascinated by the absurdity of life and people. Central Asian people are so friendly, kind and welcoming on the inside, but can be so hard and harsh on the outside. I blame the strict and unsparing history of Communism/Totalitarianism. Only here “abroad” I’ve realised how different the mentality of people is. The democratic past shaped people into complete opposite to my nation. Yet still my love for the countries I grew up in is tremendous. I’ve always said I don’t think I would’ve felt so much love for my motherland if I stayed there. My identity have been shaped here abroad as greatly, as it was shaped during my childhood in my homeland. I’ve only got inspired when I was no longer living there. It gave me different sets of sensors to use by observing it from the distance. Perhaps it made me an observer through the heart, not though the eyes.
Anvar Musrepov is an artist, curator and editor of IADA-art.org