The Gorno-Altaysk workshop Kezer is an artistic craft enterprise established in the early 1990s by sculptor and graphic artist Vladislav Khromov, a member of the Union of Artists of Russia and a People’s Artist of the Altai Republic. The Altai word “kezer” means “carved” and is also used for ancient stone statues of warriors standing in the mountain valleys of Altai.

Split cedar wood became the workshop’s principal material. A carver divides a block into blanks for a particular subject while preserving the natural shape and surface relief of the split wood, making every work slightly different. The characteristic dark finish is produced in several stages using plant dyes, beeswax, turpentine and rosin.

In 1993, Vladislav and Kirill Khromov created the cedar kabay case for the komus; its Altai name means “cradle”. Its carved imagery draws on the art of the Pazyryk burial mounds and the culture of the Altai Mountains. The cases represented in the catalogue continue this artistic tradition, combining a protective construction with symbolic carving.

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