Central Asia’s most famous artist Said Atabekov both interrogates and imagines religiosity in post-Soviet Kazakhstan in his art. He has been doing so as a member of the Kyzyl Tractor (Red Tractor) art collective and in his own art practice. They perform as shamans and explore the nomadic steppe culture of the days of yore. Offering a nuanced and often ironic critique of present-day developments in his art, Atabekov seeks to make his audience think about meaning making or the lack thereof. He highlights the inclusiveness of vernacular religion while simultaneously drawing attention to the vacuousness of the hegemonic ideologies of the day, ranging from communism to capitalism to dogmatic religion. From his oeuvre, we discuss works that concern a dervish shaman, the nomadic game of kokpar and the advent of rigid religion, respectively.

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This article contributes to the study of ritual in art, which is an unconventional setting for ritual studies. It concerns ritual, ritualization, and religion in the oeuvre of the up-and-coming Kazakhstani artist Anvar Musrepov. We discuss the prayer ritual, the process of ritual erasure (by covering in black), consumption rituals, and a cleansing ritual with a drone and ritualization with computer-generated imagery. Musrepov seeks to reimagine Kazakhstani national identity. His art, we argue, draws on what Alfred Gell has called the technology of enchantment.