Page 87 - Steppe - Aigana Gali

I w v m t
In one Turkuc myth, Tengri is a pure, white goose
that flies constantly over an endless expanse of 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,
saw huge, empty canvas with only
“Everything is connected. My Creation Myth series, made mostly with my fingertips and
she allowed herself to feel the true nature of this
nostalgia.
raw pigments, is about translating - listening to - the cosmos. My Steppe series is about
looking into the void, being there and understanding the fullness of nothing, the light in
emptiness. Tengri is about what happens when I close my eyes and travel inwards to
receive messages through my body - there is a figurative aspect to these abstractions
as very vivid and so colourful. In
y the artist who could depict this, e.’ When I woke up, I still felt the - then I realised that it was me.”
which is more about the body being a tool, a medium, or a vessel.”
MEDITATOR III
Acrylic, Oil on Canvas 150 x 90 cm
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