Benevolence

The surface of the left panel of this painting is constructed from strips of silk in vivid sapphire, while the right panel is a highly textured compound of rust and acrylic medium. The blue silk, known as ‘khadag’, is a traditional sign of benevolence, offered to elders, married couples and others as a gift of long life and happiness. The ‘khadag’ used here is one of two the artist inherited from his parents, and is one of many personal items that have found their way into his artworks. The inclusion of the square of rust is part of a strategy of creating dialogues between different materials. For Enkhbold Togmidshiirev, the square format represents stillness, and is a shape he finds meditative.

Togmidshiirev is known for his large-scale, monochromatic canvases, as well as his Ger Project performances.

The ‘ger’, a large circular tent with a collapsible wooden infrastructure, is robust and portable, highly suited both to a nomadic lifestyle and to low-cost living in Mongolia’s crowded capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Enkhbold has created a number of personalised structures derived from the ‘ger’ form, with which he performs as a way of developing a connection with his surroundings.

Enkhbold’s restrained colour-field paintings incorporate unusual media – horse dung, felt, shrubs, ash, rust, sheep skin and tripe – which are either laid over the canvas or worked into its fibres. He also incorporates collage into his paintings, while fabrics such as cotton, silk and hessian vary their surfaces. Their materiality, like the ‘ger’ performances they complement, preserves a strong connection with both traditional and contemporary Mongolian life.

Exhibited in 'The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT9) | 24 Nov 2018 – 28 Apr 2019