JANTSANKHOROL ERDENEBAYAR (JANTSA)
Born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
Artist’s Statement
My work deal with resistance in various ways. My research and investigations are focused on transformations and adjustments of living and non-living things, ideas and perceptions caused by social circumstances. Dealing with such subject matters my works tend to explore possible ways of immunity and adaptations, inasmuch as resistance equals growth.
I am very aware of my roots. As an artist, I am intrigued by Mongolian tales, riddles, and proverbs, which make me aware of how Mongolians have constructed an intellectual communicative mindset that is derived almost completely from their livelihood and surroundings. Because of this I now investigate socially constructed taboos, rituals, superstitions, and habits that we do not easily recognize in our everyday lives. Such things are changing rapidly, so my aim is to create a dialogue between the past and present.
I put myself into environments where given meanings shift and I want to question their essence. So my works deal with resistance in various forms, such as the concept of reincarnation taking many different states of being. Everything is in a state of potential transformation but there is resistance always in growth and survival.
The use of materials and how they change in my work is important conceptually and visually. The use of wood in my works possesses several reincarnated forms, such as cardboard, plywood, sawdust and papier-mâché, which give an idea of shifting shape and presence of things. Polyurethane foam suggests impermanence and time that is relative to everything as it passes. My sculpture Empty Man speaks to human existence in our society, yet it is so simple and otherworldly. Our consciousness takes over whatever body was given to us. Polyurethane foam, here and gone quickly, also implies our own ephemerality. Working with this material gives me a meditative feeling in the present, just as when gravity pulls the wet foam figures to the center of the earth.
The fact that I am attracted to found or retrieved materials may be reminiscent of the movement arte povera, but the ideas and issues that I am addressing are almost timeless and very much tied to contemporary life, as previously encoded understandings change and become more of a hybrid versions of the originals.
Education
2019 MFA Candidate, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
2015 City University of New York – Hunter College (BA)
Solo Exhibitions
2015 Hybrid Resistance, Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Group Exhibitions
2019 A Temporality, Mongolia Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2018 UCLA MFA Preview Show, New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Group Exhibition at Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China
2016 Fictive Dreams, Brother Joseph McNally Gallery, Singapore
2016 Contemporary Art of Mongolia IV, Art Space 976+, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2016 Golden Brush, Art Gallery of UMA, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2015 Space, Art Gallery of UMA, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2012 Y(our)s, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, New York, USA
2012 Faces Ink, Gallery Bar, New York, USA
Workshops
2013 Fantasy Fountain Fund Project at Modern Art Foundry, Queens, NYC, USA
Residencies
2017 59 Rivoli, Paris, France
2016 Swatch Art Peace Hotel Art Residency (3 months), Shanghai, China
2016 Tropical Lab-10, Singapore