The Shamanistic Photography of ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA
In the Steppes of her native Kazakhstan, Almagul Menlibayeva stages complex mythological narratives, rooted in the Zoroastrian ideology of former Persia, an ideology that is to this today spreading widely across Eurasia and influencing Western politicians and philosophers and the Tengriism (sky religion) of the Turkic tribes, and with reference to her own nomadic heritage and the Shamanistic traditions of the cultures of Central Asia. "I use specific ways of expression in modern and contemporary art as a vehicle to investigate my personal archaic atavism as a certain mystical anthropomorphism. In other words, I explore the nature of a specific Egregore, a shared cultural psychic experience, which manifests itself as a specific thought-form among the people(s) of the ancient, arid and dusty Steppes between the Caspian Sea, Baikonur and Altai in today’s Kazakhstan," says Menlibayeva. Menlibayeva will be exhibiting in a number of group shows during 2012, from The Mediterranean Biennale of Contemporary Art in Israel this Fall to the 18th Biennale of Sydney. Her works are currently on view until February at the LASALLE College of Arts in Singapore for a show entitled East is West: Three Women Artists.