Pic-eine'rkin

Three women from the ensemble Kiighwyak 
introducing the song Ay-ay-amamay
14 x 9 inches, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2019

Ay-ay-amamay is a song posted by OPOS (Open Planet of Sound), a music program at the University of Basel, Switzerland. We see and hear seven singers who form the group Kiighwyak perform a pic-eine'rkin (a style of throat singing specific to the Siberian Chukchi). The song, as is shown in the video linked to above, comes with a set of hand gestures. The movements of the hands, with an occasional clap in there, belong to the song. Traditions have withstood the ages, even when musical traditions have been repressed by political events. The Chukchi women seen in the video wear ordinary modern clothing. That traditional music isn't just performed by those peoples who haven't been in contact with civilizations, and that ancient musical traditions are performed in buckskin, or reindeer pelts belong to the world of myth. The pic-eine'rkin songs however, are performed today by only a few Yupik and Chukchi women. The style is related to the Inuit katajjait and the Ainu rehkuhkara traditions.  Recorded between 1991 and 1993 in Siberia. 

The small painting took me almost a month to complete. The central figure featured in the painting from the beginning, unchanged. The other other singers depicted did change their positions and sizes a few times. The portrait of Lenin, in the background gold-on-gold, appeared, disappeared, and reappeared several times, as did it's position and size.