How many times in your life you passed through the stone and bronze sculptures? How many times you wondered who and how they were created?Where those sacred origins of monuments? 

After wandering a bit on the outside of the city, we finally noticed hidden from the eyes building with the inscription “The art workshop”. After entering into the opened gates, we plunged into gloom and cold building, which looked like hangar, sharply contrasting with the warm spring street. This is one of the cradles of monuments. We met painter and sculptor Rinat Abenov who knows firsthand what it is to subdue the bronze. 

Rinat Abenov the author of the monument to the founder of the Kazakh Khante – Kerey and Zhanibek

The working day of sculptor is not like the day, for instance, an office worker. He is deprived of turmoil tied to computer and office chair. Master works with a “live” material: clay, plaster, wax, bronze and every day sees the results of his work. 

The cape of clay, the sculptor then proceed sculpting with the tool above

There is an unknown magic in creation of monuments. How else to explain the birth of a five-meter bronze sculpture?

“Everything starts with an idea”- says Rinat. Then it is drawn on paper in the form of a sketch. The drawing is embodied in 40 centimeter piece of clay. 

Sketches of sculptures from clay

The next step is increasing, where from clay already had been manufactured a meter of clay model of the monument, which is converted into gypsum. 

This is how looks like the plaster working model of the monument

Each part of gypsum products is being measured. For example, if it is the future monument of hero then the length of its arms, legs, trunk, sword and so on is being measured.  To make a huge five-meter statue, it is being put the appropriate size of frame in tree product lines (kind of 3D projection) occur five times increase in sculpture. 

In workshop

The process of birth of a bronze statue can be called fabulous, if it was not so laborious and difficult. The plaster mold is being removed from the clay giant.Wax image is very fragile, so it is being converted into a refractory form of sand, thus creating the ideal shape of the future monument. The final stage is casting bronze. Exactly in one night the metal has been cooled, gaining monumentality and grandeur. 

The bronze monument is collected by each parts and molding each item separately. If you come closer to it, you can see the seams from welding that connect parts. The master grinds the scars, forever hiding the secret birth of the monument. 

Did you know that?

Despite the impressive size of monuments, the thickness of bronze reaches 8 millimeters. They are hollow inside.

The original sketch of the monument of Zhanibek and Kerey is different from its bronze incarnation. According to the author’s idea, Zhanibek had no helmet and Kerey stretched out his left hand to the people. 

All photos 

Author: Ludmila Vykhodchenko

Photo: Alena Demchenko