Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Kazakhstan Residency

Getting materials for my work, here in Almay requires going to a construction bazaar. Each vendor is independently competing for your business. Here is where I bought expanded mesh wire. I did not speak, as my host, curator Yuliya Sorokina, asked me to NOT SPEAK, having done so while at the previous vendor... the price was adjusted accordingly.


My driver, Shokan, is a stunt driver, when not driving me around for materials. His driving on the streets of Almaty makes me feel like I am driving in a movie scene, like that in the Bourne trilogy... It was suggested, that because he has been driving with such confidence, the chances of an accident are greatly reduced.


Here is the 'store' where plaster was procured. Here, they call it gyps, and as I was requiring the material for sculpture, they assured us it was just for that purpose. Using it, I found it to be full of sand and rocks, as well as a match-book. Not ideal.


This is the gallery space at the State Museum of Art in Almaty Kazakhstan, where my work will live from 30 October - 11 November 2008.

Sand People

Sand People
Dwell on the beach
Each day wallowing
In granules of thought.
Rooted in shifting drifts
Piling high with godly gusts of bluster
Raging mounds of dusty irritation
Collects about them.
Stuck to malicious pandering
Sand people hold handfuls of
Scorn
Speckled slurs that desiccate
Blister in the searing sun of
Feigned saintliness...
Scourge decency of those
That get sand
Whipped
In the eye;
Blinding cruelty
Blown By sand people.