It is a full time job being non-binary - conversation with Yelaman Muqtarkhan.

Zarina Saidova

After being a month in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where I spent my time watching my brother's children and drinking Kumis (horse milk) and tea all day long, I was extremely eager to do something that I really was missing since my deportation from Norway - go to an art event.

What was kazakh artists working on?

I sat down to look what kind of events are happening in the city and was super happy to see that Egin Art Space is going to have an exhibition that same day, and a very important one also.

"It’s a Full-Time Job Being Non-Binary" by Yelaman Muqtarkhan is a dialogue on gender and queerness, exploring the richness of non-binary identities and human diversity. And for some people in this country, also a challenging theme to except. While writing this, petition “We are against open and hidden LGBT propaganda in the Republic of Kazakhstan!” collected required number of signatures (50 000) for consideration in Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Ministry also ordered to shut down www.selftanu.com, a website designed with LGBT+ information and guidance to help teenagers find answers to questions they maybe can’t ask anyone. “The content was harmful to the health and development of children”.

So what is happening in Kazakhstan? Are things changing, but slowly? Is there going to be anyone at the opening, or are people scared?

Pleased to see, the exhibition was packed with people interested in art, the theme, other artists, young and old. Upon arrival, I received a meticulously crafted map of the exhibition, made by the artist herself. Additionally, an exhibition book was available for purchase, providing an intimate glimpse into Yelaman's creative process through text and sketches.

The gallery presented Yelamans eight works, comprising paintings and objects. Each piece references famous universes from films, cartoons, and games. Through the lens of pop culture symbols, the works explore themes of sexuality, gender, and politics.

To learn more, I sat down with Yelaman a week later at the Egin gallery. We discussed her work, identity, and political issues in Kazakhstan.

Yelaman, 24 year old, identifying with she/her pronouns, is an agender artist based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Her artwork, which spans fine art, 3D art, objects, and installations, draws from her childhood and personal experiences, with aesthetics reminiscent of digital worlds. Yelaman originally studied Film and TV production direction in San Francisco but returned to Almaty to pursue a different artistic direction, feeling more comfortable in her home country, emphasizing how lucky she is to have a county and a place she could go back to.

When did you start working on your exhibition?

- I have been working with this exhibition for two years. It’s inspired by characters from Kazakh games that were played before the colonization in my country. We can see in those games that characters and gender were fluid and that gender devision were made after the colonization. I wanted to explore that.

I was also influenced of Spanish philosopher and writer Paul B. Preciado, whose book "Can the Monster Speak? Preciado draws parallels to Franz Kafkas «Report to an Academy» where a monkey tells a group of scientists that human subjectivity is like a cage made with metall bars. Preciado writes about his own «mutant» cage and transformation, challenging the psychoanalytic community to rethink it’s theories and practices in light of contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality. He challenged for a more inclusive and respectful approach to diverse identities.

How did those two years go? I know personally that working for a long time can be exhausting with a lot of overthinking and overdoing.

- Everything started with me gathering the ideas. I created a presentation that I brought to a gallery with a proposition to make a personal exhibition.They told me that everything was solid, it had good potential, and all left to do was the work with the text portion of the project.

Since then I’d started researching different materials, essays, getting educated on the matter to reinforce my work with the theoretical base. At that point, the active part of the exhibition preparation had already started, so this was happening during the last year. At the same time I started renting a space to realize all of the pieces. Simultaneously, I started searching for funding. The final reply on funding took a few months and I got it in February of 2024. Since that moment me and Olar collective started formulating all texts: curatorial pieces, explanations, creating the exposition and the public program.

So, all main work was carried in the period of the last half of the year. As mentioned before, that was mainly due to the funding inquiry. We found a source of funding that we felt somewhat secure about, so we were patiently waiting until we got the confirmation in January and received it in February.

The characters came from games and movies from your childhood, can you tell how you chose the specific characters and what made you want to work with them?

-Being a queer child in Kazakhstan in the start of 2000, I felt like nothing around could resonate to me, But I felt connection to Sonic, anthropomorphic character from the videogame that could be anything, boy or a girl. Sonic also has now a really strong influence in LGBT community.

While working on King Kong character I took inspiration from Virginie Despentes’s book “King Kongs Theory”. In the book Despentes writes about King Kong and how the character embodies traits and qualities that are not confined to the binary labels of "male" or «female." The island King Kong lives in, symbolizes a place of potential for this ultra-powerful, polymorphic sexuality. It represents a safe space where diverse and fluid identities can exist and thrive.

The King Kong installation on my exhibition is drawn in 3D like a Lego. It emphasize how our systems is patriarchal binary and just like Lego, it can be reconstructed, remade and then relooked at as new.

While working with the Spider-Man theme, I aimed to explore the concept of dual identities. We often present one facet of ourselves to our families and another to our community, friends, and those closest to us. The costume and face mask evoke thoughts about hidden aspects of our personalities, including our kinky and sexual fantasies. Spiderman always have the possibility to chose, while queers maybe not always have a choice. Some of my family members know about me, while others not, so I’m still in a closet for some of them.

Yelaman's work aims to inspire discussions and change perspectives. Despite the government's attempts to silence discussions about queer identities, Yelaman hopes that her work can be a part of a broader conversation.

- I don’t want to make people change their minds, or be a “informational consultance” - that’s not my job. But hopefully the work that I do, will make at least one person think differently and be a part of a discussion.

What are your future plans?

- I want to take a master in fine art, maybe in Spain, but for that I have to be done with bachelor hehe.

The exhibition can be seen if you are in Almaty, Kazakhstan and is open until 30th of June.