Under the Asphalt

Details:

City: Almaty / Kazakhstan

Venue: Arbatfest

This site specific work was created for "street art festival" ArbatFest " in Almaty in September 2013. It Is hand maid mosaic manually laid out under the asphalt . A traditional Kazakh carpets ornament , integrated into a modern urban landscape of Almaty-the largest city in Kazakhstan. I tried combine a very different time and artistic contexts - modern architecture Almaty with all its " Soviet intervention " and semantics of traditional Kazakh carpets. I wanted to create the illusion of a recognizable colorful pattern that hides under kilometers of gray asphalt covering modern city. Photo credit: Ekaterina Sisfontes

Under the Asphalt-site specific installation.

This work was created for “street art festival” ArbatFest ” in Almaty in September 2013.
http://artbat.kz/index.php?lang=en

It Is hand maid mosaic manually laid out under the asphalt.

A traditional Kazakh carpets ornament , integrated into a modern urban landscape of Almaty-the largest city in Kazakhstan.

I tried combine a very different time and artistic contexts – modern architecture Almaty with all its ” Soviet intervention ” and semantics of traditional Kazakh carpets.

I wanted to create the illusion of a recognizable colorful pattern that hides under kilometers of gray asphalt covering modern city.
Apart from the obvious historical and cultural value , the carpets are original brand of Kazakhstan and their value is constantly increasing.They are increasingly exposed and collected

During production and installation of work concept changed and evolved into a project that I think I could develop in different cities of the world.

Directly on the installation, I realized that my work would benefit if I cut out pieces of asphalt or use ready-made potholes in the road surface, which are the specifics of a major city.
Also appeared the idea of the unexpected encounter with an art object – and the reaction of the unprepared viewer to this meeting in a city space.

Mosaic made by me out of broken recycled ceramic tails – it was rather a very cheap material )

Mosaic – is old fashioned and extremely time consuming media, but this is exactly why I was interested to work with in an environment of modern street space.

In this case the use of this technique – my comment on the situation in contemporary applied arts.
To Define what is contemporary art and what is not – is difficult .
The Boundaries between “design” “craft” “fine art” are very unclear.
But attitude to media related to arts & crafts( for example glass and ceramic) in the framework of contemporary art rather negative .

I consciously create extremely time-consuming work and its temporary existence in the open is not protected by walls gallery or museum space and deliberately mixing styles and materials

In my opinion an artistic skill , knowledge how to produce your own work is one of the bridges connecting the artistic experience of the present and the past .