Installation, 35x40x40 cm, mixed media, 2019
Cattle requisitioning by the Soviet authorities destroyed the basis of life of peasants and nomads. According to historian Kaidar Aldazhumanov’s research, in 1929, there were 6 million people and 47.5 million of livestock in Kazakhstan, by 1934, only 2.5 million people remained, and the livestock dropped to 4 million. People massively died of starvation as a result of sedentarization, “liquidate with kulaks as a class,” and the lack of help from the authorities. Asharshylyk (Famine) is still not officially recognized as genocide.
The teeth of small and large cattle are mixed in this installation with human teeth, just as life in the steppe used to be inextricably interconnected. Multiplying reflections create an endless Memory steppe of these events.
