About
Asel Kadyrkhanova is a visual artist and postdoctoral research fellow at ASCA (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis), University of Amsterdam. She received her PhD from the University of Leeds (2021), and an MFA from Newcastle University (2011).
Her artistic research looks at art as a medium of memory with a specific focus on cultural memory and trauma in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. As a postgeneration artist, she explores traumatic "inheritance", seeking to confront symptoms and narratives that may persist in postcolonial and post-totalitarian societies.
Kadyrkhanova works across drawing, painting, installation art and moving image. She finds interest in the concepts of embodiment, haptic visuality, place and language, with many of her works offering strong visual metaphors to address lasting totalitarian and colonial legacies.
Social media
Education
2016 – 2021
2009 – 2011
2005 – 2007
2001 – 2005
PhD (Practice-led) University of Leeds, UK
MFA, Newcastle University, UK
MA Painting Kazakh National Academy of Arts
BA Painting Kazakh National Academy of Arts
Fellowships
2023
2018
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam
Scholarships
2016
2009
Leeds Anniversary Research Scholarship
Bolashak Scholarship of the President of Kazakhstan
Publications
2021
The Endless Time After: Art as a Medium of Memory in Post-Stalinist Kazakhstan, in Stalinism in Kazakhstan: History, Memory, Representation, ed. Zh. Abylkhozhin, M. Akulov, A.Tsai, Lexington Books, Lanham
Teaching
2021 – 2023
2019 – 2021
2022
Assistant Professor (Fine Art), College of Humanities and Education, Kimep University, Kazakhstan
Teaching Assistant, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies (FAHACS) University of Leeds, UK
Member of the Consulting Board, Umit 2.0 Programme to support emerging artists, Tselinny Centre for Contemporary Art, Kazakhstan
Conferences and symposia
2023
2020
2019
2019
2019
2018
2018
Communities and Change, Seventh Annual conference of Memory Studies Association, Newcastle University
Witnessing, Memory, and Crisis, School of Art, Heritage and Memory, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Prisms of Silence, Communicating Difficult Pasts, International Symposium, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn
Dreams and Atrocity, International Symposium, Humanities Research Institute, Sheffield University, UK
Third Annual Conference of Memory Studies Association, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
The Seventh Annual Doctoral Research Workshop
Art and Culture – Actors or Representatives? Central Asian Research Network, Royal Holloway, University of London
Annual Conference of CESS Central Eurasian Studies Society, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Recent exhibitions and screenings
2023
2023
Medium and Memory, Hackelbury Fine Art, London, UK
Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, UK
2023
2023
2022
2021
2019
2019
2018
2018
2018
2017
2017
2017
goEast Film Festival, Weisbaden, Germany
Clouds, Power and Ornament: Roving Central Asia, Centre for Heritage, Art, and Textile (C.H.A.T.), Hong Kong
Moving Image from Central Asia, Davra Collective public programme, Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany
Calvert Journal Film Festival, London, UK
Living Memory, Almaty City Museum, Kazakhstan
CITATION, an exhibition within European Artistic Research Network (EARN) conference, Leeds, UK
Focus Kazakhstan: Post-Nomadic Mind, Wapping Project, London, UK
At the Corner: City, Place, People, Tselinny Centre for Contemporary Art, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Mixer Sessions III, Mixer Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
Windows of Tolerance (solo show), Project Space, University of Leeds, UK
Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan, Yarat Contemporary Museum of Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
Internal Memory: Not Enough Space? Video screening programme by Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow
Artist Talks
2023
2018
2018
2018
2018
Artist talk, paired session with Lia Dostlieva, ARRG (Artistic Research Research Group), University Theater, Amsterdam
Artist Lecture, California College of the Arts, SF, USA
Artist talk, Silk Road House, Berkeley, CA, USA
Paired dialogue with Inga Lace at Artists and Global Citizenship: CEC Artslink Assembly, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, USA
In conversation with Dr Katy Deepwell, Almagul Menlibayeva, within Focus Kazakhstan project, Wapping Project, London, UK
Artist Residencies
2018
2015
2015
Artist in Residence, California College of the Arts, CA, USA
Protagonists: The Invisible Pavillion of Kazakhstan, group residency by IADA during 56th Venice Biennale. St Erasmo, Italy
The Eighth River, group residency and land art exhibition, Ile Alatau National Park, Kazakhstan
Summer Schools
2017
2013
'Memory in the Digital Age: Comparative Genocide Studies', Bergen-Belsen Memorial Centre, Germany
Summer School for Theories and Practices of Contemporary Art, Eurasian Cultural Alliance, Tien Shan Astronomic Observatory, Kazakhstan