Sergey Evdokimov was born in 1961 in the village of Usola Koramas in the Volzhsky District of the Mari El Republic. He graduated from the Yoshkar-Ola Art College in 1982 and studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1989–1990. Presently, he works as a designer at the Mari Drama Theater and the Young Spectator’s Theater. Being a prominent representative of Mari ethnofuturism, Sergey Evdokimov often refers to the mythological origins of Mari culture in his work.
The moose cult is one of the oldest in the Mari Volga region. In the life of ancient people, the moose played a huge role and therefore was deified. On the territory of the Mari Republic, images of moose appeared during the Stone Age; those usually were flint or stone moose figurines. There are several legends about the moose in Finno-Ugric mythology, one of them was created by the Mari people. In ancient times, the son of the main Mari god lived on the bank of the heavenly river on the top of the mountain, and he was revered as a hunter. And then one day he came upon the trail of a six-legged moose, but could not keep up with it. Then he said to the moose, “If I cannot catch up with you, how will ordinary people do it?” He was chasing i for a long time on the ground and in the sky. And, when he finally caught up with it, he cut off its two hind legs — since then the moose began to walk on four legs. And the traces from this heavenly hunter’s skis that looked like two white stripes were imprinted on the starry sky, and people began to call them the Milky Way. The six-legged moose ascended to the sky in the form of a bright constellation, which the Mari people call the Big Dipper. At the same time, the moose was also revered as a deity of the forest.
In his painting, Sergey Evdokimov presented the moose as a bogatyr, on its large head there are widely spread branched antlers. Directly above its head, between the antlers, we see a solar disk. Its golden rays shine through the dense thicket, make the figure of the moose appear blood-red and give the waves of the stream an animate energy. Ethnofuturism is characterized by the use of intense tones, juicy color palette, and an abundance of decorative elements. At the feet of the moose is a small newborn calf, its silhouette is enhanced by white flashes. Although the artist knows that it is the female moose that looks after the calf, in this canvas he drifts away from the everyday interpretation of this plot. The title of the painting “Birth” implies a broader generalization: this is the birth of a new day, the birth of a calf, and the continuation of life on Earth.
The moose cult is one of the oldest in the Mari Volga region. In the life of ancient people, the moose played a huge role and therefore was deified. On the territory of the Mari Republic, images of moose appeared during the Stone Age; those usually were flint or stone moose figurines. There are several legends about the moose in Finno-Ugric mythology, one of them was created by the Mari people. In ancient times, the son of the main Mari god lived on the bank of the heavenly river on the top of the mountain, and he was revered as a hunter. And then one day he came upon the trail of a six-legged moose, but could not keep up with it. Then he said to the moose, “If I cannot catch up with you, how will ordinary people do it?” He was chasing i for a long time on the ground and in the sky. And, when he finally caught up with it, he cut off its two hind legs — since then the moose began to walk on four legs. And the traces from this heavenly hunter’s skis that looked like two white stripes were imprinted on the starry sky, and people began to call them the Milky Way. The six-legged moose ascended to the sky in the form of a bright constellation, which the Mari people call the Big Dipper. At the same time, the moose was also revered as a deity of the forest.
In his painting, Sergey Evdokimov presented the moose as a bogatyr, on its large head there are widely spread branched antlers. Directly above its head, between the antlers, we see a solar disk. Its golden rays shine through the dense thicket, make the figure of the moose appear blood-red and give the waves of the stream an animate energy. Ethnofuturism is characterized by the use of intense tones, juicy color palette, and an abundance of decorative elements. At the feet of the moose is a small newborn calf, its silhouette is enhanced by white flashes. Although the artist knows that it is the female moose that looks after the calf, in this canvas he drifts away from the everyday interpretation of this plot. The title of the painting “Birth” implies a broader generalization: this is the birth of a new day, the birth of a calf, and the continuation of life on Earth.
