SELECTIONS delves into the world of acquisitions, exploring what museums and galleries have been adding to their collections in the past five years as well as featuring images and summaries of works and artists.
ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA
Bio: Kazakhstani, b. 1969
Title: The Constructor, 2016
Medium: Art print on archival paper
Size: 150 x 100 cm
Acquired by: MOMENTUM WorldWide Collection, Berlin
Artist represented by: Andakulova Gallery, Dubai
Acquisition date: 2019
Menlibayeva’s “The Constructor” is a photo-collage in which a woman’s face is superimposed over images of construction taking place in Kazakhstan’s new capital city, Astana. The artist plays on ideas, such as propaganda and social realism, evoking the traditional use of visual language to indoctrinate a totalitarian mindset in terms of how we perceive the future while contrasting this with the positioning of a woman at the heart of this construction and transformation.
Copyright: Almagul Menlibayeva
Courtesy of Andakulova Gallery
ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA
Bio: Kazakhstani, b. 1969
Title: Altar of the East/ Center, 2018
Medium: Art print on archival paper
Size: 100 x 150 cm
Acquired by: MOMENTUM WorldWide Collection, Berlin
Artist represented by: Andakulova Gallery, Dubai
Acquisition date: 2019
Recalling the spectre of nuclear war that haunted the Cold War era, this work features the control panel for detonating nuclear weapons, when it was located in the Kazakh city of Kurchatoy. Menlibayeva grew up in this era of polarised ideologies, but this artwork carries a message of the importance of reappraising the thinking of the past and the possibility to create a different future.
Copyright: Almagul Menlibayeva
Courtesy of Andakulova Gallery
A VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN PRINT IN SELECTIONS #55