ABSTRACT
Ivory carving in Sakha Sire is a formal art, but it is also a form of traditional craft. Sakha craftsmen are called uus kihi, a title which refers to their technical skill and artistic ability. Sakha craftsmen are versatile and switch between different media with ease. Using a historical perspective, we follow the establishment of ivory carving as a branch of art and discuss carving as a social form of art and engagement. The temporality of Soviet futuristic aesthetics and socialist realism is presented by two examples of traditional choroon carving. We look at a recent trend in ivory carving – carving souvenirs for tourists. While considered a simplified form of artistic expression, we argue that tourist ivory carving is an authentic form of art in its own right. Questions of temporality, tradition and modernity inevitably led to discussions of the Sakha style of carving among our interlocutors, who often contemplated what constituted genuine Sakha style of carving, its authenticity, and it distinctiveness from other styles of carving.
