Recently I showed my first ever sand sculpture here on Steemit (link below) and today I want to share my first ever Snow sculpture. Please forgive the quality of the photos, they are scans from the original 35mm pictures. This was in the day before digital cameras.
After starting my adventures in sand sculpting the year earlier, I was asked in 1997 did I want to be on a team and go to the Russian city of Perm to represent Ireland in a snow sculpting competition. I have always had a great interest in Russian culture and to visit a city deep in the heart of it sounded wonderful. I would learn how to work with snow when I got there, it'll be grand.
Four of us set off with what tools we thought would be useful. Fergus and Niall had already worked with snow and gave my ideas on what to bring both tool and clothes wise.
Back in the USSR
Perm is a city around 1500km from Moscow in the foothills or the Ural mountains. First we traveled to Shannon airport on the west of Ireland to catch an Aeroflot plan to Moscow and from there we took a 22 hour train journey along the tracks of the Trans Siberian express to reach our destination. It was like a journey back through time. The soviet union had already fallen at the end of 1991 but it felt like word had just reached Perm.
The city is probably best known for its Ballet school and the purpose of this event was to try and grow it as a cultural capital.
We were provided with an interpreter and she would become a great companion as we tried to work out what was the hell was going on most of the time. Anna was her name and as the week progressed many of her friends came along with her to meet these crazy Irish guys. Actually just a few weeks ago she made contact with me on The Facebook. After all these years she looks exactly the same.
We were presented with a large block of compacted snow measuring around 3 meters cubed and started to hack away with our garden tools. I had brought a small shovel and some wood chisels which were not that useful but I did make a simple tool from a garden hoe and it saved the day for me. We also had a chainsaw which helped with some of the initial blocking out. Not having great tools made us look quite silly to the other carvers and made for a very difficult job.
Our ideas was to make a big ball representing earth with lots of people trying to help each other to the top. We each took a corner and did what we could with our primitive tools. Below is my side which I was actually quite happy with considering it being my first attempt. The snow was surprisingly strong due to the -20c temperatures.
I thought I had brought good warm clothes but it was still quite dangerous for my toes and fingers in this weather. There were moments when I was scared that my fingers would get frost bite and fall off and there were no places close where we could defrost. luckily we had brought some baileys coffee to try and give some central heating.
Culturestroika
One evening As honored guests of the Major we were brought to see a ballet of Peer Gynt. We were taken straight from work and sat in the front row, still with our thermal work clothes on, the other concert goes were dressed to the nines in gowns and suits. I was really enjoying the dancing and music but when I looked around to share my enjoyment I noticed all the other carvers were asleep, some even snoring from the warmth and tiredness.
Anna also invited us to have dinner with her family which was a nice surprise. She told us that her grandmother was not willing to meet us due to the fact that she believed all westerners were evil. The message that walls had fallen had obviously not reached her. The food was great and we were struck by how similar elements of their culture were to ours at home. For instance, in Ireland we have this thing where we always refuse a first offer of food or tea. The host will then ask us again and we refuse again. Only on the third or fourth offer will we say yes and can all move on with our lives. We were amazed to be going through the same process with Annas mother.
We named the sculpture 'póg mo thóin' and told the organisers it meant 'Friendship and Unity' in our native tongue. It actually means 'Kiss my arse' and was decided upon due to the fact some of the characters carved in the piece had their heads in very awkward positions. It's also an Irish saying and with our innocence a fun in-joke.
In the end the whole sculpture turn out well for a group of amateurs and we were even awarded a prize of a big painting that we had lots of difficult bringing home. I think Fergus still has it.
As we left Perm it was like a scene from Doctor Zhivago as lots of our beautiful interpreters waved us goodbye with handkerchiefs as the train slowly rolled out of the station.
Ps
Thanks you for reading my rambling words. I hope you don't mind me using the introduceyourself tag but I do look at this as a reintroduction. I would like to welcome my 450th follower. Below are some of my latest posts and a link to my first sand sculpture mentioned above.
My introduction to sand sculpture- Sand sculpture
Hookah-smoking Caterpillar- Sand sculpture
Catch The Wind- Sand sculpture
The Bold and the Beautiful - ice sculpture
Talk to you soon again.
@ammonite
!steemitworldmap 58.005345 lat 56.250058 long Perm Snow sculpture competition 1997 description d3scr