Middle way: an Interview with a Buddhist artist in Kalmykia5 min read
Lossi 36 sits down with Delgir Sarieva to talk about her unique 3D animations that take the mind on an existential journey. Sarieva opens up about remorse, hurt, and finding her way through her artwork, often inspired by Buddhist principles. This is just one of the series of conversations with artists of Kalmyk Contemporary.
IDOLS. Stolen Time comes from a place of hurt. Can you talk about your inspiration behind this piece? What is the significance of some of the numerology present in the work?
When I broke up with an abusive partner I realized that there was nothing inside me and that I was just empty. That long period of our relationship vanished in time and became just a memory of the past. So it pushed me to think about time in general. This artwork represents my feelings of time and time by itself.
View this post on Instagram
The numbers to the left represent some important dates. We are used to seeing time as something that can be counted. However, these are just numbers that mean nothing for time itself. Time exists independently of us as another dimension, and what we are trying to calculate is our life, emotions, experiences, and feelings. We do not control time, we only steal from what has been allocated for us.
What got you interested in 3D art and animation?
I don’t think that it is so important to make my artworks in 3D but animation is more valuable for me as a method of the whole expression of an idea. When I imagine a new picture it is usually animated in my mind. So it is not like I’m turning it into an animated work – it comes to me in that way by itself.
View this post on Instagram
In your work The Balance you talk about distributing your light evenly. Can you explain what that means and how that concept plays out in your work?
In Buddhism, we have the term “middle way” which means to not be extreme. That explanation correlates with my work The Balance. People get more problems when they put all of their time in one of the parts of their lives, like work or family, so the other sides of life are lost. When you start to pay more attention to work, your family sees you less at home and your relationships can be affected. That leads to suffering, for you or the people close to you. I suggest people control their life through the “middle way”. I believe we can distribute our forces evenly and live in a world without suffering, which you can create for yourself.
View this post on Instagram
In your work The Idol: Too Close you ask what happens when we reach our goals? Well, what does happen? What is your experience with this concept?
Sometimes we concentrate all power on one point – reaching our goals, forgetting about more interesting things that happen around us. It’s like you go fast and do not notice all the beautiful places around the corner, but when you slow down, you start to notice all that stuff. I like to think about what can be entertaining to us while on our way towards our goals. I know some people who jump from one goal to another without pausing. They run faster and faster and when stopped they have no good memories, only work. It’s all about life without suffering again. I often turn to this because I would like to somehow reduce the number of regrets in my life.
You experiment with the concept of aphasia – speech dysfunction in your work titled Aphasia. Why is psychology and oftentimes, otherworldly psychoanalysis, a recurring motif in your work?
I often question the reality of our beliefs. The world that we see and perceive is built on the basis of our life experience and the experience of a society in which we coexist with other people. What happens if one of the realities is taken away from us? For example, to be deprived of the understanding of speech – one of the main mechanisms of interaction with the world. I propose to conduct an experiment on yourself and abandon descriptions and categories, try not to think in words, leaving only an emotional response without trying to somehow explain it, just feel it. How does your world change? Will you be able to communicate with others with just emotions? These and many other questions have already been investigated by people studying the work of the brain. Neuropsychology provides a lot of food for thought, such as how reality is generated by our brains. Reflecting on these topics, we can go far from science and imagine anything. That is why I often find ideas at the junction of scientific and otherworldly psychoanalysis. I conduct experiments on my consciousness and thereby gain more knowledge of myself.
View this post on Instagram
Tell us more about the program and process of making these animations.
My animations are looped for a reason. The point is that this is also part of the idea. This endless video with monotonous constant movement and music introduces the viewers not only to the picture but also helps to drip into the depths of their consciousness and draws attention to the emotions hidden there. So that condition cannot be reached without full viewing and immersion, and therefore first of all you would not feel yourself.
You can follow Delgir Sarieva’s work on Instagram here and view Lossi 36’s virtual exhibit, Kalmyk Contemporary.
