“Gazhap dünie” is a solo show of Assel Nussipkozhanova - an autobiography depicted through portraits of women close to artist, as well as an ode to the city of Almaty.

Collage aesthetics is an important and easily noticeable characteristic of the works presented at the exhibition. As a clothing designer, Assel uses her experience in fashion and understanding of textiles and applies them on canvas. In the series of works “Balkondar" there is a central cube, which resembles to set design lighting of fashion shows. It accentuates female postures and their outfits. The repeating shape of the square is framed within the intricate patterns borrowed from iconic architecture of Almaty such as the Academy of Sciences, Soviet Supermarket and so on. Through the recognisable decorum of old city of Almaty, Assel creates complex ornamental backgrounds for her heroines.

All of the represented characters, as Assel says, are portraits of friends and close female relatives. Their poses are very relaxed, although the looks are deliberately elaborate. The cube behind them is a metaphor of a balcony, where they nostalgically observe the city, which in fact they and Assel herself have never witnessed. "Manchanza" (from Italian “boredom”) - a feeling of boredom, a lack of something or someone, accurately conveys the nostalgia that is inherent in these characters just like when we get dressed, but decide to stay at home. The reality in which the whole world spent the last year, missing the essence of being, the only "outing" was a stroll to the balcony.

In these paintings, the artist touches up onto the current actualities, as well as on the changes a person, and especially a woman, goes through. The “Balkondar" series is about the multifaceted nature of femininity and different social statuses in the life of each female representative. From a teenager to mature young woman, from daughter to mother.

These changes are obviously present in Assel’s life as well and therefore she is nostalgic of her youth, nonetheless there’s a bold gaze towards motherhood. She’s missing people dear to her heart who we’re responsible for her sense of style and an understanding of femininity, however, in the present she is ready to create and shape her own designs and patterns. For this reason, portraits "Mama" and “Boïjetken" are stylistically different from the previous ones. If there is certain clarity and detailed structure in the “Balkondar” series, which definitely came from the world of fashion, Assel's sanctuary and confined area of expression. The latter ones are like a negative film just about to be developed; images are naïve, the facial features are caricature like. The only thing that is recognisable are the green polka dots on the dresses. Just as in front of a person at the turn of the search for a new self, so as in the creative discoveries of a new medium there is so much unknown ahead. There is only a big incredible world ahead. O, gazhap dünie ...