Page 86 - Steppe - Aigana Gali

n this departure from the familiar to the
e
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The Cave
In this departure from the familiar to the strange, we return to the metaphor of the studio as a cave, and the artist’s fundamental need to find a safe, quiet
space to work without any distraction. “I can work anywhere as long as there is space and materials, but only if Tengri - or however you like to understand the energy of the universe - is channelling through me.” Tengri, is an ancient form of spirituality found in the steppe, based on folk shamanism, generally centred around the titular sky god. The name Tengri ("the Sky") is derived from Old Turkic: Tenk ("daybreak") or Tan (“dawn”). Referencing the sky and light, its followers often worshiped in caves, outlining its cosmology on the walls
“The meaning of life for followers of the Tengri is to be at one with nature, and in this we are sustained by both the spirits of heaven and earth: the eternal blue sky and the warm yellow mother beneath our feet.”
Istrange, we return to the metaphor of the studio as a cave, and the artist’s
fundamental need to find a safe, quiet space to work without any distraction. “I can work anywhere as long as there is space and materials, but only if Tengri - or however you like to understand the energy of the universe - is channelling through me.” Tengri, is an ancient form of spirituality found in the steppe, based on folk shamanism, generally centred around the titular sky god. The name Tengri ("the Sky") is derived from Old Turkic: Tenk ("daybreak") or Tan (“dawn”). Referencing the sky and light, its followers often worshiped in caves, outlining its cosmology on the walls
“The meaning of life for followers of the Tengri
is to be at one with nature, and in this we are
“In my dream, I came into a room and I saw huge, empty canvas with only sunlight on them and nothing else, it was very vivid and so colourful. In this dream I said to myself - ‘how I envy the artist who could depict this, how I would love to try and do the same.’ When I woke up, I still felt the envy I had in my dream for this artist - then I realised that it was me.”
sustained by both the spirits of heaven and
In one Turkuc myth, Tengri is a pure, white goose
earth: the eternal blue sky and the warm yellow
that flies constantly over an endless expanse of
mother beneath our feet.”
water, which represents time. Beneath this water, Ak Ana ("White Mother") calls out to him saying "Create". To overcome his loneliness, Tengri creates Er Kishi, who is not as pure or as white as
Tengri and together they set up the world. It is a
myth that keys us into the moment Aigana started
this series.
Through the act of painting she began to bring
her feelings for the steppe to life - not just for
herself - but for those who have been there, and
for people like me, who have never seen the
steppe before. Painting these from memory, or rather a “remembered feeling of a memory”, to access this, she first had to take herself away, putting time and distance between the place that shaped her. So deprived, she began to recall the steppe, and then, within the safety of her studio, she allowed herself to feel the true nature of this nostalgia.
“In my dream, I came into a room
sunlight on them and nothing els
this dream I said to myself - ‘how
how I would love to try and do th
envy I had in my dream for this