Dilyara Kuanysheva
I was born and raised in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a post-Soviet Central Asian country with nomadic roots. When I was twelve, my family and I moved to the United States. Since then, I have struggled to find a sense of cultural identity, and I have tried to “mine” my way back home through my work. I bring myself closer to my culture through portraiture and portraying family members and figures of the past—those whose stories deserve to be told. I share my culture with an American audience and create a piece of home here in the United States.
To create these works, I take small photographs from old family albums—some as small as a passport picture—and draw large-scale versions with charcoal or pan pastel. The works are typically three by four feet in size. The drawings speak to one another, creating a “hall-of-fame” effect when side by side. Some works possess smaller details that are indicative of the time the photographs were taken, such as my grandmother’s hairstyle or my great-grandfather’s army uniform.
Ancestral worship is an important part of Kazakh culture. I create these portraits to commemorate their history. It is important I share their stories of hardship growing up in the USSR and exhibit their lineage. These people are heroes to me.
Uncle Serikzhan
Grandma at 20