ARMIN CSIZMADIA

My work explores the expressionism of aesthetics, 
stories, and atmospheres that inspire me. I specialize in printmaking, often blending digital planning in Photoshop with traditional mediums like charcoal, graphite, and paint. I’m particularly drawn to the unexpected outcomes of printmaking, which align with my expressive style.

I am passionate about the intersection of science and art, particularly the fusion of psychology and neuroscience with creative practice. Recently, I’ve begun creating multisensory pieces that combine visuals with scent, a direction I aim to pursue further.




Documentation

semester 1 (S1)
- PROJECT RAZZMATAZZ, 

- WOODWORK SOUND INSTALLATION

- THOUGHTS AS CLOUDS, CLOUDS AS THOUGHTS 

- THOUGHTS AS CLOUDS, CLOUDS AS THOUGHTS AV

- OH YOUR POOR EAR 


Semester 2 (S2)
- SHAMANS RESEARCH

- SHAMANS EXHIBITION WORK
S1 Research

S1 Assessment

Shamans

In this project, I draw inspiration from the ancient culture, beliefs, and folklore of the Hungarians (Magyars), focusing on shamans—spiritual figures who communicated between the worlds above and below. I’m particularly influenced by Vilmos Diószegi, an ethnologist and folklorist whose writings on shamanism deeply fascinated me. Visually and thematically, my work is inspired by Slimen Elkamel, a Tunisian artist who paints oral folktales using a figurative contemporary style with a washed, layered technique. My goal is to translate Diószegi’s stories and the theme of shamanism into a contemporary visual language that reflects my personal connection and enthusiasm for this topic.

Hungarian folktales and History

The inspiration for my project on ancient Hungary came from a painting of Saint István’s baptism—the moment Hungary transitioned from pagan nomadism to Christianity around 1000 AD. István, born Vajk, is shown as a powerful, almost beast-like figure: muscular, draped in a red robe symbolizing wildness, power, and blood. His braided pagan hair stood out most, embodying the fierce Hungarian spirit feared across Europe—"God save us from the arrows of the Hungarians."

Although Christianity became official, and paganism was outlawed, some beliefs blended into the new faith. Still, the Hungarian spirit endured, especially as Hungary became a protective barrier during eastern invasions. This resilience inspired me to create an artwork expressing what defines us as Hungarians.

I began with Hungarian folktales, listening to an audiobook of the stories I grew up with. While interesting, I found them too shallow—they illustrated culture but lacked the spiritual depth I was seeking. Interviews about Hungarian culture focused on social or political topics, not the essence of the Magyar soul.

So, I turned to ancient belief systems. Paganism’s connection to nature intrigued me, especially the idea that all living things have a soul—a concept with surprising relevance to sustainability today.





My response to contemporary art capturing myths and folklore

I explored Tate’s website to understand how artists engage with folklore and mythology. I noticed that many use these themes not to retell stories, but to explore personal or contemporary ideas. For example, Francis Bacon drew on Greek mythology to express suffering, rather than focusing on the myths themselves. Joan Jonas responded to Grimm tales through installations that conveyed her reaction, not just the narrative.(Tate, n.d.) Similarly, Kiki Smith’s Rapture reinterprets Little Red Riding Hood to explore themes like the female body and feminism.(Art21 2024)

While I appreciate how these works make folklore relevant today, I feel something is missing. Simply responding to or illustrating tales feels vague to me. I’m more interested in how ancient narratives can spark new, globally relevant ideas—like sustainability, identity, and aesthetics—rather than social or gendered commentary. I also prefer working with lesser-known folklore or myths, as they offer fresh, unexplored perspectives that could resonate with the present in unexpected ways. 

An interesting lecture with Dr Pil Kollective changed my approach to research in this topic, who emphasised how “it is not encouraged for us students to agree with every artist, and that sometimes the best research comes from hatred”. This quote gave me a new driving force to reflect on my disagreement with the working style of Kiki Smith, in how she uses the rich context of folklore for exploring feminism in a flavourless, boring and vague piece of work. Looking at the work and learning about it has flooded me with the feeling of monotone boredom, which was the point where I realised how I want to make work about folklore and mythology, rather than using it for some other message I want to communicate. 




Art21. 2024. “Interpretting Life, Death, and Mythology: Kiki Smith’s Sculptures | Art21.” YouTube. October 10, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxYwShyZiUg.

Tate. n.d. “Myths and Legends Coursework Guide – Student Resource.” Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/student-resource/exam-help/myths-and-legends.

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Expanded painting

I read the book “Expanded” painting by Mark Titmarsh as I wanted to experiment with hanging a raw canvas in the middle of a gallery space. I did not find the book relevant as it was mostly about the natrue of expanded painting and how traditional painting can be challenged and what can be considered a painting or expanded painting. However one interesting line was about how Heidegger suggests that art is an “event that opens up a cultural world and reveals the essential materiality of things in the same stroke”.(Titmarsh, 2019) I resonate with this statement, and I also created my painting as an installation. 

Titmarsh, M. (2019). Expanded painting : ontological aesthetics and the essence of colour. Bloomsbury Academic.

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Slimen Elkamel figurative painting

Slimen Elkamel was the main artist who inspired me to explore ethnographic, mythical, and folklore narratives in my work. His large, unstretched canvases, painted with acrylic pens and over/underpainting techniques, recreate the essence of Tunisian folklore as told by his female relatives.

Rather than illustrating stories literally, Elkamel's work feels rich and immersive, offering contemporary insights into culturally rooted knowledge. In contrast, I found Western artists like Kiki Smith unengaging—her abstract approach felt vague and disconnected from my research. This comparison highlighted the importance of grounding my own work in socially and culturally relevant narratives.

I aim to fuse the ancient with the modern, using figurative painting, diagramming, and layered techniques, while experimenting with multiple mediums like printmaking. Elkamel’s vibrant use of neons, oranges, purples, and greens also influences my palette, contributing to a trance-like, symbolic visual language that invites intuitive interpretation.

 




Djamel Tatah contemporary figurative painting

I seen Tatah’s paintings in a book about contemporary islamic artists, and I started loving his style straight away. I like the centred, figuratively painted characters which have greatly detailed and emotional facial expressions. I am highly inspired by the way he captures the human figure, which although is figurative, appears natural and life like. Similarly to Elkamel, I like how his characters are centred on the paintings, and are painted from a front or side profile. 
Inspired by Tatah’s and Elkamel’s figurative painting styles, I would like to develop my own type of figurative painting to capture the shaman stories, and tell narratives within my work. 

Saeb Eigner. (2015). Art of the Middle East : modern and contemporary art of the Arab world and Iran. Merrell.



The shamans, Vilmos Diószegi






After researching ancient Carpatian culture and religion I became familiar with the Hungarian shaman called “garabonciás” or “táltos”. These were “weather wizards” who were able to communicate with other world spirits, who showed them what they were looking for, which helped them in medicine and treasure finding (Pócs). Shamans communicated with the spirits via hallucinogenic substances, and rhythmic drum beats via their drums, which sent them into a trance state. Shamans were able to perform supernatural behaviours such as walking on ember.  

I was aware that in my mom’s side of my family, my great great uncle Vilmos Dioszegi was one of the most influential ethnographic researcher into carpatian, Altai and Siberian shamanism, and that he was a shaman himself. I found a mail where a relative of Vilmos explained his story from the family perspective. The letter has ignited my enthusiasm towards the topic of shamanism, and the idea of shamanism in the modern age.

The letter: Dioszegi published over 12 academic writings and was a true genius. He spoke in 9 extinct and live languages, and studied ethnography at university in Hungary. He had multiple expeditions in Siberian, and researched Turkey and Mongolia. During his journey and research, the shamanic tribes befriended him, and Vilmos soon became a shaman himself. In his latter exhibition when his family was anxious about him, he just said “don’t worry, I am a Shama, I can endure any physical challenge known to man”. At the age of 40, he attended the neurological clinic in Budapest where he had one to one conversations with his best friend,(father of the girl sending us the mail). Vilmos said to him, that he believes a shaman is going to come for his soul, and after a few days a misterious unknown man appeared, a Tungusic shaman. After 2-3 days, Dioszegi died of “unknown causes”, however Vilmos suggested to his best friend that when 2 shaman meets, they extinguish each other’s souls. Vilmos also suggested that there is a curse on our family where every first born child is going to be born with an intellectual or physical disability.

After this, I started reading one of Dioszegi’s most valued book “Sámánok nyomába Szibériában”, which is yet to be translated to english. This book autobiographically tells Diozsegi’s experiences with the Shamanic tribes and families, and interviews with the shamans themselves about their traditions and beliefs. 



Interesting narratives within the first Siberian expedition:

“The shamans dress up as a black and white bull. The black represents the evil while the white represents the good spirits, who have to duel. As Pócs__ suggests, This event is part of becoming a shaman, and consited of dueling an antagonist shaman in a bull robe. This event was highly prevalent in Hungarian shamanism too.” (SÁMÁNOK NYOMÁBAN SZIBÉRIA FÖLDJÉN [1998] 1998)

“In looking at my research partner’s name, I realized that the reason it sounds so familiar is because its a famous Shaman dinasty’s name. Upon asking her, she laughed and said- yeah I have got a shamanic spirit from both my maternal and paternal side of the family.” I found this really interesting because later I learnt that people could become shamans by going to the forefather shaman and, ask for spirits. Making the individual a shaman. (SÁMÁNOK NYOMÁBAN SZIBÉRIA FÖLDJÉN [1998] 1998)

A shaman introducing himself: “From my family, I did not inherit shamanic abilities. I inherited the shamanic spirits of the family. His wife added: in our family, you can become a shaman via the forefather shaman, or by a mountain spirit, who makes you sick, which you can overcome by starting to practice shamanism. The spirits you get, who make you a shaman are spirits of dead shamans. These live by dynasties, the new shaman can only get its nation’s dead shaman spirits. Importantly you can get more. Not how much you want, but how much is needed.”
This really fascinated me as I realised that if Dioszegi became a shaman, then it’s likely that our family has shaman spirits too. I also find this interesting fram the perspective of aminism, where it is believed that everything has a spirit. I find the spirit of the mountain very interesting. (SÁMÁNOK NYOMÁBAN SZIBÉRIA FÖLDJÉN [1998] 1998)

“You chan ask the forefather shaman to give you ghosts, or to take them back. For this you must invite the forefather for a feast where you can ask him. Furthermore, by the spirit of the mountain, anyone can become a shaman. This spirit gives bad spirits to the individual making him very ill, which he can only overcome by becoming a shaman”. I really like the idea of a shaman forefather. Later on I found out that this shaman is not alive anymore, and is invited to a feast by making the food and the shaman has to spiritually meet him, where he offers the food. (SÁMÁNOK NYOMÁBAN SZIBÉRIA FÖLDJÉN [1998] 1998)



Somfai Kara, Dávid (Photographer): photo of Buriat shaman forefather shrine. (2007)

“The ill individual looses its consciousness, inwhich he attends his nation’s forefather shaman. When he arrives they cut his body up into multiple pieces, separating every organ. This is to examine a specific bone in his body.This is an event the ill individual sees from an out of body experience.” I was fascinated with the complexity of shamanic traditions and events of becoming a shaman. This event really evokes barbarism, and feels like a fever dream. It is dramatic and is something that resonates with the shamanic spirit that I perceive. (SÁMÁNOK NYOMÁBAN SZIBÉRIA FÖLDJÉN [1998] 1998)

The process of making a shaman drum “The shaman forefather first decides the dimensions and properties of the shaman’s drums. This includes what animal can it be made of, and how big it can be. He also determines the types of spirits that can be drawn on it (these are the  spirits that the shaman gets). After this the shaman makes the drum himself. Once the drum is done, it must be given to children for 3 days who must play with the drum before they go to sleep. After the 3 days pass, the drum is taken from the children and the spirits are drawn on it, at which point the shaman cant give it back to the children. Then the shaman must bring the drum to life. He does this by finding the animal’s spirit by following it’s soul to its birthplace. Then a birch tree is taken from the forest that is decorated with ear jewellery and colourful strings of women. The shaman goes around and uses his drum stick to hit off any jewellery put up by an unholy woman. After this, they make a feast by killing a sheep, boiling its lungs and heart. They also make 3 bottles of alcohol from grain. The shaman after this goes on a journey where he reaches a crossroad with an invisible shaman sitting on the cross. The shaman must gift this shaman a bottle so he points him to the right direction. After this the shaman can reach the forefather, who examines whether everything was done in the way he commanded. If not, such as the drums weren’t given to children, he becomes angry and he punishes the shaman.” I really enjoy this narrative, and I am fascinated by the shaman drum being a live thing rather than a passive object. It is also a very nice detail that the children must play with the drums and I really like to visualise that. (SÁMÁNOK NYOMÁBAN SZIBÉRIA FÖLDJÉN [1998] 1998)


SÁMÁNOK NYOMÁBAN SZIBÉRIA FÖLDJÉN. (1998) 1998. Budapest : Terebess Kiadó.

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The Hungarian Shaman, Dioszegi on traces of shamanism in Hungary, and Pócs on the Táltos itself. 

I intend to explore Shamanism itself in particular, becasue it was the shared social belief system of the time between the ancient civilisations distributed in Sinberia, Mongolia, Altai mountains, Turkey and the Carpatian mountains. 

However, prior to Hungary becoming a catholic country in 1000.AC. shamanism was still practiced in Hungary, where the religiious system was paganism. The táltos was a weather wizard who worked with astrology, medicine and treasure finding (Pócs, Dioszegi). I specifically read about the Táltos to find out any differences Between siberian and Hungarian shamans. I found high intersection between them, and narratives only differed slightly, however there is variance between tribes such as the Nenets, Altai, Hungarians, or Buryats due to some geographical separation. Despite that, general princinples in relation to spirits did not differ much, and one I found especially exciting is how the black and white bull costumed shaman fights each other, representing good and bad spirits. (Pócs, Dioszegi).


Museum and Gallery visits
Christina Kimeze technique

I visited Kimeze’s exhibition at South London Gallery. The reason I chose her as one of my artists to research is her contemporary use of colour, texture and overlay, with traditional painting mediums and mixed media techniques. 
Upon seeing her work from close up, I was fascinated and surprised by her style, as she dynamically uses underpainting, overpainting, damping and drawing techniques within her work to create an overlaying, textural but faded/washed effect. I found her technique highyl motivating for my project, and I may try to incorporate repetitive textures similarly to her lines. Another aspect I liked is her over and underpainting technique, and not overcomplicating shading, tone and detail. This was highly prevalent on the faces, which had an under and overpainted base texture for the main facial colour. Then she overpainted with a darker colour, and kept the colour consistent without adding third or fourth colours. I would like to try this technique in figurative painting of shamans. 




The second factor in chosing her is the use of colour. I really like the combination of the purple, green, pink, light blue and orange. It creates a rich, oriental and dream like effect for the work. I like it how they are almost neon vivid, and balance each other out. I would like to borrow this technique, similarly to Elkamel, because the oriental tone resonates with my theme of Siberian, East asian, and Carpatian location of the shamans. It also draws attention to itself by looking playful and innovative. It reflects my ideas of creating a large scale artwork that is not just culturally relevant, but would explore greater themes by presenting ancient, forgotten but well refined and important perspectives on our world. This rich topic should be supported with relevant, recent and innovative techniques, but significant playfulness to reflect it’s importance. 



Pitt rivers museum Oxford Siberian shamans

I visited the Pitt Rivers ethnographic museum of Oxford where I could see shaman relics in real life. I found the Nenets clothes interesting and the maps illustrating their region which I may use in a form of diagramming art about shamanism. 

Ethnographic Museum of Hungary

I visited the museum to see my grand uncle, Dioszegi’s research first person. 
I found other researchers and stories from the uralic region, one that particularly stood out was the shaman doll used to preserve the soul of the shaman, who can live on in the doll and give advice to the village members. 
I also found the hungarian ethnography and folklore very interesting especially weaving, clothes like the “cifra szűr” and embroidery.
 

Hungarian cultural elements


Practice based research

After this I attempted to illustrate one of my favourite narratives, the 2 bull costumed shamans duelling. I did this in charcoal. I really like how the shamans come out. I also like the perspective. I both want to experiment with this kind of style and detail, but also with more Elkamel, Tatah and Kimeze styled figurative painting methods. 


I wanted to start experimenting with painting techniques and developing my independent figurative. I remained inspired by Elkamel’s style therefore I borrowed elements such as colour schemes but I didnt want to copy him therefore I experimented with less and more detail on face and body. Below I started with watercolour which I didnt like that much because it felt flat opposed to Elkame’s style.

 



To progress, I started experimenting with printing different patterns, using over and under printings. I did these by painting the character first then printing over and around it. I found the mono screen prints interesting but they were too defined. On an interesting experiment where I used the 3rd prining with the same screen I found a very exciting faint colour. I found this very exciting because of the washing. I liked the fainth texture as a ghost image behind. It resembled elkamels style in a way but it was new. It didnt feel too much like the ones before. 



First experimentation on fabrick. Inspired by artists in canvas magazine, I wanted to work on fabric this time that I use as an isntallation. For this I started experimenting on fabric with the techniques