Gulnur Mukazhanova – Un-Conscious

18 September—20 November 2021
Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin

Fabrics of silk and velour stretch tautly over canvases, luring the viewer into Gulnur Mukazhanova’s first solo showing with Galerie Michael Janssen. Titled “Un-Conscious”,Mukazhanova’s exhibition questions the divide between what is seen and what lurks behind a dazzling surface.

The artist’s practice is centered around questioning, researching, and examining motifs and rituals of her traditional Kazakh culture and likewise global movements. In this showing, she specifically attends to the material exchange of fabrics and carpets, like the Tus-Kiz,during moments of celebration: tantalizing textures of bright cerulean and woven patterns meant to bring good fortune take on a new form in her work. Given as gifts during weddings and other ceremonial moments, the cloths mark hopes for prosperity, but as the artist notes, they are mere illusions that cover other darker cultural norms. Mukazhanova’s works pose bold questions through their profoundly sensitive displays.

Moment of the Present #26, detail, 2021, velour, brocade, lurex, pins, collage, 170 x 140 cm, copyright Gulnur Mukazhanova

Bio

Gulnur Mukazhanova (b. 1984 in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan) lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Artist Statement
While studying at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Kazakhstan and textile and surface design in Berlin Weißssensee after trying different techniques, I chose to work with felt and textils as lurex, silk, velur. The endless felting prozess give me strong feeling to my nomadic roots of my ancestors. Continuing my studies in Berlin, comparing European and Asian cultures, I began to question issues such as traditional cultural values, identity, feminism, globalization.

The process of felting and pimpling pins on lurex fabrics corresponds to the conceptual idea of the main theme of my artistic activity. I am working on perfecting the technique and its deep meaning in my work.

My works are a reflection of our kazakh society. They try to critically illuminate the tensions between the individual, the post nomadic developed identity, and the alienation through the global information- and media society.

Source: https://michaeljanssen.gallery/