Tsendpurev Tsegmid
Tsendpurev Tsegmid
TSTSendee@yahoo.com
Tsendpurev Tsegmid is a Mongolian artist living in the UK, who investigates issues of heritage and identity from the perspective of her own cultural re-location. Originally trained in the discipline of traditional Mongolian painting, Tsendpurev now works in a contemporary art context. She uses photography and performance, combining both practices in such a way that her work is difficult to categorise. In some cases the camera simply documents a performance; in others the performative event is staged in order to construct a photograph as the final artwork.
Tsendpurev uses clothing and costume to take on different identities and to explore the issue of geographical and cultural displacement. In her ongoing project Packing/Unpacking, Tsendpurev wears her mother’s ‘deel’ (traditional embroidered garment) in the context of both Mongolian and Yorkshire landscapes. Alhough geographically separated from her family living thousands of miles away, she is tied by her feelings of love and kinship. This is expressed by wearing her mother’s clothing (like an ‘embrace’) or dressing in a police uniform as a reference to her father’s professional life, during the Communist regime of his country. The camera provides a way of examining these acts of identification and emulation, and the multiple meanings that are produced once they are framed within a Western context.
Familial narratives are also woven into a research project that investigates the guarding of frontiers and the preservation of territories. Tsendpurev examines the meaning of her country’s borders from the perspective of one who has flown over and beyond them. Living in a globalised culture but still maintaining an attachment to her homeland, she questions the use of the term ‘nomad’ for the millions of people around the world who live in voluntary exile rather than following the patterns and paths inscribed by previous generations.
Assuming an alter ego for the series Queen, Tsendpurev displays the sense of pride located in her Mongolian heritage. The warlike prowesses of the country’s leaders, and the history of the Mongol Empire, provide a focus for national feeling. However, there is also a sense of irony in the mode of dressing up used to create The Queen. The clothing is purchased from shops in Mongolia and the UK, produced by multinational retail companies in a global industry that indiscriminately fuses styles and fashions. From this available mix Tsendpurev chooses to create the identity of a female warrior leader, as a re-enactment of ancestral power and authority. The Queen adopts ceremonial poses using the sword as her most potent accessory. However, she also reveals a self-reflective uncertainty as she faces the camera. Queen has been performed in different locations, including the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, where it was an intervention in the museum’s space of preservation, raising contemporary issues of conflicting identity.
By Juliet MacDonald MA
QUALIFICATIONS/TRAINING
Since Oct 2005
PhD (Practice-Led) Contemporary Fine Art, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK
2004-2005
MA (Merit) Contemporary Fine Arts Practice, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK
2002-2004
Freelance Artist, Mongolia
1998-2002
BA in Fine Art, Institute of Fine Arts, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 24th March- 9th April
Defending, Guarding & Preserving, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK
2008 23 April- 24 May
Packing/Unpacking, photographic series, The Carriageworks, Leeds, UK
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008 1-3 May,
Leeds Art Fair, Leeds, UK
2008 4-29 February,
Borderlands, South Seattle Community College Art Gallery, Seattle, USA
2007 10-30 April,
Odoo/Current, Chingghis Art Gallery, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2005 13 June-2 July,
From the Ordinary, LeedsMet Gallery, Leeds, UK
2001 15-29 April, New Wind, The Institute of Fine Arts, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
SUB-PROJECTS
2009
The Forgotten Cassette (1996): Let’s hear it, audio recording (1.05 hr), photographic compilation, Leeds, UK
Femme & Révélation , self-portraits, photographic series, Leeds, UK
Special Collections, self-portraits, photographic series, Leeds, UK
The Queen at Royal Armouries, self-portraits, photographic series, Leeds, UK
The Queen, photographic self-portraits, photographic series, Leeds, UK
Everything in One Bedroom, self-portraits, photographic series, Leeds, UK
Childhood Dream , self-portraits, photographic series (work in progress), Leeds, UK
2008
Untitled, painting series (work in progress), Leeds, UK
Border guard , photographic series (work in progress), Mongolia and the UK
2006
Packing/Unpacking (work in progress), UK and Mongolia
2005
Only Two Cities, wall drawing, Leeds, UK (MA final work)
2004
Banquet & Fakeness, photographic series, Leeds, UK
Travel & Memory, photographic series, Leeds, UK
LIVE PERFORMANCE
2005
13 June -2 July Banquet, performance piece (12 min), Testbed, LeedsMet Gallery, Leeds, UK
SITE SPECIFIC WORKS
2008
Packing/Unpacking , performance (work in progress), Ilkley Moor, UK
2007
Packing/Unpacking , performance (work in progress), Mountain of Khustai, Mongolia
CURATED EXHIBITIONS/PROJECTS
2008-2010
Silk Highway , a group project of artists based in the UK and Mongolia
200812-22September
Khanamj/Ecstasy by B. Munkhtsetseg, ‘Blue Sun’ Contemporary Art Centre, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
PUBLICATIONS/REVIEWS
2008-2010
Silkhighway project blog, English-Mongolian-English translation of artists’ profiles and communication on website: www.silkhighway-dialogue.blogspot.com/
2007
Odoo/Current: An exhibition of work 12 UK based artists, an exhibition catalogue, curated by Jill Morgan, Leeds Metropolitan University publication (ISBN 978-0955501715)
2005
Work: Postgraduate Art & Design, a compilation of works by postgraduate students, Leeds Metropolitan University publication
2005
From the Ordinary, a group exhibition catalogue and leaflet, curated by Moira Innes, Curator of LeedsMet Art Gallery
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