Ankhmaa Batchuluun

Dzud, an anomalous climatic disaster occurring in a cold dry climate—can cause mass livestock mortality and dramatic socioeconomic impacts (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction)

The work, Dzud, confronts the stark reality of loss in a world reshaped by the Anthropocene, where 8.1 million lives of livestock were claimed by an unrelenting dzud in the vast, unforgiving landscape of Mongolia in the winter of 2023/24. Inspired by the memorial of purple poppies dedicated to the war donkeys at the York Army Museum, the work is a tribute to the loss of the animals in dzud and offers an invitation to feel the raw, unsettling aftermath. In its fractured form, Dzud speaks to the violence of a world where nature’s forces are inseparable from human impact. It is an exploration of fragility and endurance, where survival is no longer a certainty, and the boundary between ecological collapse and human existence grows ever more tenuous.

A ceramic protective mask was created, inspired by the snow leopard and domestic goat, both iconic species of the Gobi Desert, symbolising wildlife and human impact on the environment. These animals, deeply affected by the consequences of human activities, represent a delicate balance of nature in the region.