Tuvan Art and Shamanism

Tim Hodgkinson is an English anthropologist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Hodgkinson, along with Scottish percussionist Ken Hyder and Tuvan master shamanic musician and throat singer Gendos Chamzyryn, comprise the electroacoustic improvisation trio K-Space. After making a series of trips to Tuva to perform and study shamanic culture, Hodgkinson has published an essay exploring the relationship between art and shamanism. In the abstract Hodgkinson explains, "Tuvan art invokes a particular construction of 'nature' (and of an experience of nature) as a total cosmos embracing both 'this' and 'other' worlds. The concept of küsh (spiritual energy or force) bridges the boundary between art and shamanism, but does not abolish it. Both art and shamanism set in motion a movement of the imagination that extends beyond everyday modes of representation. They diverge, finally, in three ways: first, by the degree to which occasion is determinative: second, by the direction of movement between material and imaginary planes (being there/being away with the spirits): third, by the specific role given to the shaman in relation to the imagined." Read more of "Musicians, Carvers, Shamans" published in Cambridge Anthropology Vol 25.