Mergen Kavaldanov, About My Work

Abstract

Mergen makes whistles from clay in the form of animals, such as a horse, a wolf and a lamb. Recently he has been making camel-whistles, and to associate them with the Kalmyk steppe, he makes his whistles produce a wind-like, low sound. He says he uses a Spanish technique for making whistles. While small whistles have a higher pitched sound, larger whistles tend to produce a thicker sound. Mergen also makes rattles, a kettle and other art objects. Mergen shows the figure of a wolf, dyed in blue, which symbolizes that the wolf is a sky-animal. Another object that he shows is a whistle that takes half an hour to make. A camel-whistle, by contrast, takes 4.5 hours to produce.