The one, who feels the Kalmyk groove
Southside Grooven and his visual code of the Republic’s culture
Southside Grooven's artworks form a whole universe of references, easter eggs, metaphors and even local memes. It instantly resonates with anyone who understands Kalmykia on the level of a local resident. In his paintings, one can find an unexpected juxtaposition of something familiar (usually containing an ethnic component) with pop-culture. Not only does this mixture surprise the viewer, but it also helps to get deeper into the subject matter of the work. "TODO Media" talked to Southside Grooven and found out what a fictional bus route number 8 and Sansara wheel have in common, why the artist has put tulips in a Café Pele jar, and how Texas rap interpolates with nomadic concepts.
I got the impression that you had a period of graffiti until around 2014. Tell us about it.
As kids, we were very attracted to hip-hop culture, especially graffiti. At that time, the internet was not well developed in Elista, we had to put in extra effort to find information. Nevertheless, we had our own idols among graffiti artists, and we tried to emulate them. Personally, I was very inspired by El Mac, Retna, Revok and other representatives of the Los Angeles street art scene.
Eventually I became more interested in creating characters rather than writing letters.
At the same time I started to realize that we have our own identity, which should be reflected in our own art, because obviously biting other people's styles won't get you far.
It seemed to me at the time, perhaps because of “Ferocious” being a part of your former nickname, that your characters had such angry eyes on purpose. And during that period, all your works were about Kalmyk warriors, like "Don Cossack" as well as the soldiers of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Great Patriotic War.
Trying to bring the so-called "Kalmyk style" into my work, I used some surface level ideas. There is no secret that a Kalmyk man is stereotypically viewed as a warrior who must always fight. The image of a warrior holds an important place in Kalmyk culture, there are plenty of historical reasons for that.
I am looking for new ways to identify myself as a young man from Kalmykia, to tell the story of my generation.
Now I'm trying to come from a modern perspective and reinterpret the present, which is quite the opposite of what I did before.
Was that your thing, heroes with burning/white eyes?
Why were they white? It just happened, I guess. The eyes are quite delicate from a technical point of view. I wanted them to look more expressive. Well, I also like Raiden from Mortal Kombat.

The Creator (2014)
You painted warriors on walls, but at that time your personal style was slowly starting to emerge on paper. In this work there is Buddhism and rappers, someone from Atlanta, apparently. Or is that you wearing an Atlanta hat?

It's just some generalized characters, a collage of images we're used to seeing.

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That's me with a friend. It so happened that on our way from Moscow to Elista we spontaneously booked seats next to each other. That trip was fun.

Why is there big brother above you?

Because he's with us all the time. Күн ахта, девл захта.

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I might have returned from Elista to Moscow to study after another vacation when I drew this. This character has a helmet on his head because he still hasn't adapted to the new surroundings. There's a black square on the left side where the heart is. It's empty there, homesickness.

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There's some big city with overpasses and the creator sitting on a lion above it with paper flying out again.

Some people make rap about rap, and I have drawings about artists.

The clouds here are inspired by Favorsky's engravings for the "Dzhangar" epic, right?

It's quite possible, yes, I might have been inspired by something like that.

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And here, for the first time, there are clouds and lights like on thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist paintings on silk - “TODO Media”).

This is probably the first time I managed to draw these lights in my own way. This element has always attracted me, it is very expressive and can be filled with different meanings.
In what art forms do you work mostly? You’ve painted with watercolors, you’ve painted on walls.
Painting and drawing in the studio are the two main ones. I paint on walls less now, but in the future I hope to do a couple of large-scale projects.
You're self-taught, aren't you?
Yeah, I went to art school for just over a year.
Where does the urge to add new media, or complicate things come from for you? Is it common for all contemporary artists, that they have to make things more complicated and play with different formats in order to surprise the jaded viewer, or is it just you?
I want to make stuff that I like, and I guess it's just the inner urge to experiment, to improve, even if I like the work when it’s done. All the works we've just looked through, I liked them very much when they were made, but that feeling is deceptive.

You want to see what's next, you're always searching. You look at the others and see that they do similar things better, then you try to improve. There's a lot of reasons. Things have gotten easier for me in terms of materials. There used to be a real search, I painted with watercolors, acrylics, oils, did a few walls.
Now I stick to oil painting, even though it is not on a traditional canvas, but rather on glass
My drawings, on the other hand, are as simple as it gets in terms of materials - just ink and paper. It probably means that I am more satisfied with what I do now than before.

Daddys Car (2019) 20,9x29,7 cm paper, ink
You had a lot of sketchbook photos in 2019.

I had this thought, "What can I do if I limit myself in materials?". It seemed to me at the time that something cool should turn out, because when you face difficulties in the creative process, you instinctively look for new ways of expressing yourself.

At that time, I was watching a lot of tutorials for illustrators, and I noticed that in order to be able to draw a head, you have to be able to draw a skull. And I came across pictures where the skull was drawn in different positions. That's how I got the idea that skulls would be part of my visual language.
Looking at your work and seeing lots of artifacts that remind me of home.
It gives me such a thrill to recollect these things. The search for references is interesting in itself.
To a certain extent, I do these drawings and paintings for myself. Real life situations are often reflected in the pieces I create
Lifes a Trip (2021) 91x61cm oil, spray paint, glass
The names of real Elista bus stops are compiled into the route number 8. It doesn’t not exist, here it represents the endless circle of Sansara. For most people, it starts with the maternity hospital (first stop on that route). Then you go to the children's polyclinic, school, and further - the railway station, because most likely you have became a university student and you are going to Moscow to study. And from Moscow you fly to your parents by airplane, and that's how your adult life passes. Then comes the "last stop", but it really is a new beginning. One cycle ends and a new one begins.
Is it hard to explain what your work is about? You had an exhibition in Finland.
It was easy, I thought it would be harder. I couldn’t really predict how it would be received. But I noticed that at the show some of the viewers were reading about the Oirats on Wikipedia. After that they would ask me different questions, like: "Are Kalmyks and Oirats the same thing?". Sometimes their questions were about something very specific, which is great.

All in all I’m surprised how much that audience was able to perceive new information. It seemed to me that if someone sees something unfamiliar, they will let it pass their ears, eyes and will not think about it ever again. But I couldn’t have dreamed about a better feedback.
The Watcher (sunset) (2021) 91x61cm oil, aerosol, glass.
In this picture you see my yard in the 8th microregion. We used to go to that corner store all the time as kids. From there we used to get sunflower seeds, pear limonade, chips, squid rings and popsicles named “Corkscrew”. That was so good!
Does the Watcher drink Kalmyk tea and say well-wishes out loud?
Yeah, it's like he's making an offering to the gods.
Yeah, it's like he's making an offering to the gods.
I look at this picture and the summer in Elista immediately comes to mind: Toyota Camry, police, corner stores.
Yes, next to the store there is a Camry with a prayer wheel spinning inside. A saleswoman measuring something on a scale. The store is no longer there, it has been gone for many years now.
Interesting detail: There's a whole post about The Watcher with references
Legacy (2022) 91x61cm oil, spray paint, glass
My classmate had Ajinjal’s football jersey (Ruslan Ajinjal - Soviet and Russian football player, coach, played for Uralan FC as a midfielder - “TODO Media”). For some reason he would wear it while playing as a goalkeeper. But that shirt was dope, it turns out that Uralan had so many different designs. At some point they even had something written in the Clear Script at the front of a jersey, I’ve only noticed that recently.

It's not that I hadn't followed Uralan before. I was six when I attended my only game. But recently I’ve picked up newspaper articles, old videos and documentaries about the team. It all helped me realize the magnitude of the events of that period, even though it didn't last long and things were, to put it very mildly, far from ideal. It is cool to realize now that our team played in the Premier League, other clubs came to our city.

The Three Jewels (2023) 120x80cm oil, plexiglass

The title of this painting is a reference to the Three Jewels in Buddhism. It’s because tulips are so rare now, at least in Kalmykia, that we should really treat them as jewels.
Perhaps they are the last three tulips in the whole world, and the main character has been left to look after them, because they are all that is left in the Kalmyk steppe, which has shrunk to the size of a coffee jar
But the character's habits, which he can't change, make him treat these Three Jewels as something unimportant: he throws cigarette butts into a makeshift ashtray, right into the grass. This can be interpreted in different ways: to emphasize the fact that people are not environmentally conscious, or to present these tulips as a piece of home that everyone takes with them when they leave.
This Cafe Pele jar, it's like everyone used it as an ashtray, you recognize it immediately.
Yes, I had one of these at home when I was a child, but we used to store nails in it. People from other parts of Russia message me about this jar, which means that it is a part of their culture too. Maybe Cafe Pele could serve as a national brand, not of Brazil, but of Russia (laughs).
It's cool that under the tulips you painted a plant called shepherd's purse, it grows everywhere in Kalmykia.
I noticed it on all the photos of Kalmyk tulips that I have seen. I thought it would be right to depict it here as well.
Why does he have a halo made of barbed wire?
It's an allegory of bad decisions in life, or exposure to bad habits. It's also represents the idea of treating something you should cherish as just another worthless thing.
Is that why he has a blackened and clouded third eye?
Yeah, that's just the way life has been for him. And the circumstances don’t help him make wiser or better decisions.
What does your nickname mean?
There's a song “Southside Groovin” by DJ Screw. I'm a huge fan of Texas rap, and DJ Screw played a key role in shaping its aesthetic. In the song, southside is the southern part of Houston, where the artist is from. Houston's rap scene is a great example of how to be successful creatively while still maintaining you own cultural identity.

Maybe not a lot of people outside the state really care about Texas slang and driving slow in a Cadillac on 84s, but songs about it would still get played all over the world, including Elista marshrutkas and local radio stations back in 2000s. The song “Ridin” by Chamillionaire is a great example. And nowadays only those who aren't interested in rap music haven't heard of Astroworld amusement park because of Travis Scott. Not to mention the legendary Mike Dean, whose discography has spread far beyond the genre.
Back to the song, the phrase “southside groovin” sounded catchy to me, and the other part of the hook “body movin” reflects what is depicted in my paintings: people moving through life, doing different things. As for southside, when determining the parts of the world, a nomad's gaze as well as the doors of his home are traditionally turned to the south
It’s like a reference point that remains unchanged wherever you are and however you move in life.
Afterword
When I’m sketching, trying to put my thoughts into a drawing, I do not always feel the connection to Kalmykia for some reason.
when other people look at my work and, if they grew up in the republic, see something very familiar, or, vice versa, if they are not from Kalmykia - something super exotic, it means that the main goal has been achieved
Looking at the modern life of Elista and the republic, not everyone, I think, can derive a visual language from it. At first glance it seems that Elista is just another post-Soviet city with panel buildings on one side, a country part of town on the other and Lenin Street somewhere in between. I have a feeling that people now draw a lot of things from our epic past - times when Kalmyks participated in numerous historic events. You can tell that because of that people are getting a bit depressed by modern life, devoid of epic stories that are usually held up as an example.

I think that as a society we should realistically look at what we have now, analyze, draw some conclusions and move on, making the right decisions along the way. This was the general idea behind my work.

In order to create these works, I needed to do some research, not to be unsubstantiated and all. You know, as you walk past the Amur-Sanan library and turn into Nomto Ochirova Street, all of this seems familiar, but I have never really thought about who those people were. Not until recently.
For me, the process of creating these paintings is a way to get to know myself and my people’s history better, to find out why we ended up being where we are right now
My early works with Kalmyk warriors reflect a mindset of a young man, who has just finished school in Kalmykia. A simplified perception of his own culture, formed during very limited school hours devoted to native history. Everything in it is much more complicated, but it’s way more interesting because of that.
If we, Kalmyk people, do not make ourselves known, who else will?