“OGT+ORGUI | SPACE = NOTRACE |” REVIEW

The root of the word “ogtorgui (space)” in Mongolian language is “ogtorgui (no trace).” Simply, it seems to imply negation, yet the word is chosen by the Artist, from his point of artistic thinking, as a form of an existential questioning. Dorjderem Davaa’s art exhibition introduces a new level of artistic sensibility to art connoisseurs.
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There are seven works chosen for the show; three sculptures, three paintings and a video. The artist portrays his great grandmother, father, and his “pregnant” wife in the sculptures. The way I see these works, the artist gave himself the unapologetic right to look deeply into, and share with the audience, his naked self. The exploration is executed by expressing and exploring one’s feelings for the people dearest to the artist, his relations with these people, who are of separate identity but convoluted irrevocably with the person Dorjderem finds himself to be. The humanistic and animalistic are present in these pieces, as carnal horns project at the viewer in organic assimilation with the human. Nature herself is omnipresent. Because it is omnipresent, it embodies extremities. Extremes and contradictions are interdependent and interconnected in the natural world. The artist’s gentle and flexible depiction is revealed in its true essence and is shed of romanticism. The natural yet extreme, soft yet powerful, discreet yet audacious, spiritual yet contemporary; these creations announce the beginning of new wave in the Mongoliansculpture space based on a symbiosis of classical image, surrealist language, hyperrealism and symbolic content.
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HORNS. What does the Artist’s depiction of horns narrate? Horns = Weapon = Our true nature. To defend, to preserve and to conquer are also ournature. These characteristic returns us to a natural state.
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The element of horn was introduced by “Voice in the Space” composition that had won the Grand Prize in the 2007 Singapore Biennale. The composition was widely acclaimed for it had won the viewers’ choice award. Dorjderem stated that spirals in the element of horn symbolize our spiral shaped life. A fetus is born from the spiral, and is eventually dissolved back in it.
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Related to these three sculptures, there are three “spot paintings” in the collection. At first glance, the paintings evoke sensations of pop art or works of Damien Hirst. Looking closer, one recognizes originality and unique nature delivered by the felt that is used in the act.
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Along with fresh imagery, contemporary art seeks new way of thinking and perceptual vernacular. The play of symbolism sharpens this language, works to express an artist’s views and satiric ideas. The seemingly random “spots” in the paintings are not random. In fact, they are aphorisms written in the Braille /tactile writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired/ that convey the artist’s poetry on a canvas. This encryption flirts with the viewer’s sense of imagination and arouses innate curiosity to decode and understand. Coloring the visually impaired people’s system of writing forces open numerous doors, as if reaching to take new bearing upon the artist’s friction of views and ideas behind the creative pieces. Or, did he merely exercise his sense of humor?
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Either way, beside the play of imagery, there is clearly a strong play of imagination, expressed in a unique vernacular. The desire to express these ideas is the creative concept at hand.
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Munkkhbolor. G | Artist
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