Russian artist Dashi goes East

Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, Singapore

Siberian sculptor Dashi Namdakov's reputation precedes him. Kill Bill's star Uma Thurman owns several pieces of his works as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor G. Schroeder to name a few fans.

Despite this vote of confidence from these big names, the artist is a shy and modest man, seemingly unaffected by his fame who remains deeply inspired by his homeland in the Buryats, his people's myths and fairy tales.

"Until now, I treasure the stories (from home)," the artist explained through his translator. "My grandpa was a very gifted storyteller. He knew a lot of legends and stories about the Buryats. And I remember his stories."

The 38-year-old sculptor comes from a remote village on the Russian-Chinese border where he learned his craft at an early age from his father, a well-known sculptor famous for his wooden likenesses of Buddhist gods and deities.

But it was not until he moved to Ulan-Ude, Buryati's main city, that Dashi started his career in the workshop of a known local sculptor G. Vasilyev.

Later he got a grounding in formal academic art when he was admitted to the University of Fine Arts in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk city in 1988, the place where he was taught by famous Russian artists like Lev Golovnitsky and Yuri Ishkhanov.

After his graduation in 1992, Dashi returned to Ulan-Ade and did not exhibit until 2000 a solo exhibition in Siberian city of Irkutsk. The exhibition was then followed by other successful showcases of his works in Russia and other countries.

The influences of myths and fairy tales are clearly visible among his sculptures recently on display at Singapore's Scarlett Hotel organized by the Sunjin Galleries as one of the Singapore JewelFest 2005's highlights.

In the exhibition, the sculptures of mythical creatures, warriors, shamen and nomads all show flawless plasticity and precision detail.

Cast in diverse materials -- bronze, silver, gold -- or carved from mammoth tusk and sculpted from horsehair -- the works draw heavily on the artist's native land's nomadic past and myths.

In Guardian, he draws his inspiration from ancient Asian cultures by reinforcing the symbolic qualities of deities, guardians whose intimidating appearance frightened off demonic powers. In this work, the mythical creature combines features of animals and birds -- paws of a lion and of a bird of prey, head of an eagle, bull's horns and a tail with a scorpion's string.

In another work, the artist also conveys his feeling of a juvenile beauty, charm and naivete in Youth, a sculpture which shows a girl posing dreamily, looking into a distance as if seeing her beautiful future.

"I like to invent my own shape, to recreate shapes. Regular form, if you distort it, it should be very realistic, convincing. That's why," said the artist, who now lives in Moscow and his collections found in many well-known museums in Moscow and other countries.

Dashi's experimentation does not stop at his sculptures. Currently, he is engaged in a cinema project involving six countries as an art director -- doing sketches for costumes to setting -- for Oscar-nominated Russian film director Serey Bodrov Sr.'s Mongol: The Early Years of Genghis Khan.

And for the Singapore's exhibition, he also displayed his latest invention, exclusive handmade jewelry that was first introduced in a solo exhibition late last year at the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow.

Unlike most jewelry collections, Dashi's jewels -- in forms of real and mythical creatures -- is a stunning and unique combination of sculpture and jewelry art.

By bringing the two together the artist explores the new frontiers of contemporary art as well as challenging the established traditions both in sculpture and jewelry.

Dashi's animalistic images of pendants, rings and earrings gave new impetus to contemporary jewelry fashion.

Dashi modestly said that he introduced his jewelry line for a change, after being engaged with sculptures for some time.

"I want to experiment, to try new things. I do jewelry for a change. Besides, my jewelry is very close to sculpture, a fusion," said the recipient of the Russian Academy of Art's silver medal.

After touring countries in the West, the Dashi said he wanted to bring his works east, where people also believed in myths and guardians.

"I've been going to Europe and now I want to go to Asia more and more because I feel that it is close to my roots. I want to discover Asia more. I want to go East," Dashi said.