I spent some time last Saturday at Winkleman Gallery with the current exhibition, I Dream of the Stans, new video from Central Asia: Afghanistan and the former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. I was taken by several pieces on this first go around (I didn't see everything: must go back for more). "Jihad" by Almagul Menlibayeva is gorgeous, as is Rahraw Omarzad's subtley lovely piece "Opening"; but it is "Northern Barbarians, Part II: Love Races," by Rustam Khalfin and Julia Tikhonova that I can't get out of my racy mind (unable to pull away, I watched it loop): A young couple, a man and a woman, naked and god-like and bathed in warm other-worldly light, going at it on the back of a galloping horse. Hard to imagine? Your vantage point shifts: close up and abstracted; or (not quite) voyeur; again (not quite) lover. You are being pleasured by the video, rolling with it as it gallops across the landscape....
Still from "Northern Barbarians, Part II: Love Races," by Rustam Khalfin (Via)
Here is some background:
Rustam Khalfin (born in Uzbekistan and resident of Kazakhstan), as follower of Russian historical avant-garde and both teacher and theorist of trends in contemporary art and culture, has played an integral role in training younger artists. In his collaboration video with Julia Tikhonova, entitled "Northern Barbarians, Part II: Love Races," a young couple is making love, nude on horseback, while riding across some desolate woods. Inspired by two series of watercolors from the 18th and 19th centuries (found in the book of "Chinese Eros") the love scenes are re-interpreted. [...]
Still from "Northern Barbarians, Part II: Love Races," by Rustam Khalfin (Via)
more info from artrabbit :
One of Khalfin's more recent video works to be exhibited is Northern Barbarians: Part II - "The Love Races" (2000). This video records a languid flail of arms, slow-jostling thighs, and jerking, heaving, torsos. The strange rhythm of this moving flesh - lilting, rocking - is accompanied by breathy sighs. Through the mass of stirring skin - the sheen of fur. As the camera pulls out, the melange – or ménage – is revealed: The congress of Man and Woman, atop a horse. She reclines, head resting on mane, He is seated, as their mount carries them through a wooded glen. The video is a joint work by Khalfin and collaborator Julia Tikhonova. The carousing couple were hired to re-enact an old ritual: Before the creation of the Soviet Union, and subsequent repression of indigenous Central-Asian cultures, Kazakhstan was a land of Nomads whose daily lives were intimately bound-up with their horses. While the act harks back to an obscure Folk custom from the pre-Soviet era, the title 'Northern Barbarians' appropriates an ancient Chinese term referring to the nomadic peoples of Kazakhstan. We might view the piece as exploring the notion of a Kazakh identity set apart from the longstanding cultural and political influence of their powerful neighbours – Russia and China. At any rate, the work has played a pivotal role in announcing the emergence of a 'contemporary' Kazakhstani culture to a western audience: It represented the nation at the Venice Biennale of 2005.
Still from "Jihad" (2004) by Almagul Menlibayeva
via the press release:
I Dream of the Stans: New Central Asian Video
Featuring recent work by Vyacheslav Akhunov, Rahraw Omarzad, Almagul Menlibayeva, Jamshed Khalilov, Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev, Said Atabekov, and Julia Tikhonova & Rustam Khalfin.
Co-curated by Leeza Ahmady, Murat Orozobekov, and Edward Winkleman
March 20 – April 19, 2008
Opening: Thurs, March 20, 6-8 pm
Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat, 11 6 pm
In conjunction with Asian Contemporary Art Week 2008, Winkleman Gallery is extremely pleased to present I Dream of the Stans, an exhibition of new video by leading contemporary artists in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Co-curated by independent curator Leeza Ahmady, Murat Orozobekov, and Edward Winkleman, the exhibition surveys the range of powerful new works emerging from this often overlooked region of the world. Since the incredible critical acclaim that greeted the first Central Asian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005, contemporary artists from Afghanistan and the former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan have drawn an increasing amount of attention from Western curators, museums and galleries. Most of the newfound attention centers on the remarkably strong single- and multi-channel video works produced in the region, a fact often attributed to the region’s centuries-old traditions of storytelling, street theater, and weaving. I Dream of the Stans brings together works by seven of the area’s most important artists (and teams) including Vyacheslav Akhunov, Rahraw Omarzad, Almagul Menlibayeva, Jamshed Khalilov, Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev, Said Atabekov, and Julia Tikhonova & Rustam Khalfin.
[more...]
Winkleman Gallery
637 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
t: 212.643.3152
f: 212.643.2040
http://www.winkleman.com/
More Asian Contemporary Art Week programs and events.
