For a long time, I felt a certain contempt for living in Mongolia, with a constant desire to be anywhere but "home." However, since moving to the U.S. again in 2022 for ICP, I've been reevaluating my roots in nomadic culture and how they shape my life today. This led to my work, untitled: the passport/borders project, where I explore themes of identity, migration, and borders through digital collage prints in postcard-sized, 6x9-inch frames. Using archives of my self-portraits, passport images, and stamps from the places I've lived, I layer these together to create a sense of juxtaposition. The frames around these double-layered images are also filled with visa stamps and exit/entrance marks from different countries, expressing a sense of fragmentation and tension.
In Mongolia, there is a saying: a horse always finds its way back to its land. In April 2024, I returned to Mongolia after submitting an 0-1 visa petition, aiming to avoid overstaying while awaiting approval. Over seven months of this long, tedious, and often anxious waiting game, I've been once again reevaluating my connection to the land I've been trying so hard to leave. While I feel like an outsider in most places, never quite belonging, I find solace in the countryside-where roads stretch endlessly and the skies feel boundless. In the space between escape and home, I discovered a kind of comfort in the vastness, an order without force, and allowed myself to surrender to the peace it offers.
