Odonchimeg Davaadorj Mongolia, 1990

Odonchimeg Davaadorj left her native Mongolia at the age of 17 and went to the Czech Republic then France, where she encountered a western culture that was new to her. This multi-layered identity has certainly influenced her gift for expressing her vision of the world via different artistic media. She draws, paints and sculpts as well as working with video, performance, dance, poetry and, more surprisingly, clothes. As she explains: "I think that you get to a point where you feel a work has to come out. If it's a poem, I have to write it down. If I can't write, I have to move, whether I dance or draw."

Until she left for Europe, Davaadorj built up an unusually close relationship with nature thanks to an almost self-sufficient lifestyle in a remote village. The work she has produced since her student years is inescapably imbued with this attachment to the sphere of animal and plant species. An element of nostalgia emanates from the little worlds the artist creates on all sorts of media along with an exquisite lyricism. Each element, whether a person, animal or house, expresses the melancholy remembrance of her childhood. They often feature the colour red, an intriguing unifying thread which reinforces the dreamlike nature of her work. The colour, embodying blood and life, is enriched by the fragility of the sewing thread, a sort of primary artery weaving through her drawings. Davaadorj's palette and fondness for fabrics and sculpture bear witness to her admiration for Louise Bourgeois' work, extraordinarily feminine, intense and sensual.

Text  © backs\ash. All rights reserved.