Mongolia Return

Wednesday 22nd October, 11-12pm, staff common room

Artist, Hermione Spriggs will speak about her current work from Mongolia, entitled: UURGA (irregular loop).

“The LASSO is loosely appropriated here as a device that captures a moving object (in its analogue sense) or an irregular one (in its digital sense) - in our case, “the cultural condition.” - Stuart Bailey

The ‘uurga’ - a type of lasso particular to Mongolian pastoralists - consists of a gently tapering wooden rod three or four meters in length with a leather loop at the slender end. Although it can be used on foot, the uurga is typically employed by a rider to catch a given animal (such as a horse to be used for riding) by flicking the loop over its head and bringing it to a halt by stopping his or her own steed.

The uurga functions as a non-euclidean frame through which to view the world - a klein-bottle space in which inside is always out. An uurga might be described as an extension of a herder and a model of a horse in negative space. It binds the interests and behaviors of human and animal together in a single tensile form.