Landscape of Mystery Paintings by Moni Oolyonghai

Theodore Cantrell

Moni Oolyonghai’s grasslands are metaphors of separation and proximity with the openness symbolic of freedom of spirit, the space between trees representing a doorway etc. Theodore Cantrell tries to unfold the mystery behind these metaphorical landscapes where each object is a subject in itself.

Moni Oolonghai is a Mongolian artist born in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, China. For the subject matter of his paintings he uses the landscape of his homeland. The style of his landscapes is a combination of surface and atmosphere, which carries inside them an air of mystery about the fabled grassland of his birthplace. The grassland he paints is not the one you would see if you rode out into the Mongolian landscape of today, his works are a depiction of the grassland of the spirit world. It is a landscape of mystery that lives deep in the dreams of the artist. In this dream like space the surface of the painting merges with the narrative as smoothly as the land dissolves into the sky. There is quietness about the works; they are paintings of a land almost without sound, or a sound that cannot be heard by us. In these landscapes one sees images that appear as if one was in a dreamlike state. Horses, trees, strange animals, they all float in the grass, connecting with it and with the sky. One is reminded of Chagall’s works except for the difference in mood and what the artist portrays in his work. Unlike Chagall’s, Moni’s work does not look back at folklore, but at his own personal narrative of a land he is connected to. If we look at some of the works and the titles the artist gives them, one can see more deeply into the mystery of the story that is being told inside the paintings. The painting called “The Player” is a work whose image is both of the land and of the sky.

The swirling forms have the look of clouds and at the same time have a solid feel to them. There are small red figures that appear to be dancing in this landscape. Maybe it is a ritual dance of some kind or a story from the past, long forgotten except by a few. Looking at the painting “Where Are We Going” you clearly see the grassland however the grass is a blue, not a naturalistic color. The painting shows two trees but the trees seem to float on the surface rather than reside in the earth. They are twisted in shape with short spiky branches and are more expressionistic than representational. And between the two trees is again the odd red figure, its arms stretch out as if reaching for something maybe walking off to some unknown location. This is a painting of a psychological landscape, one from the artist’s imagination. In the painting “The Door” we are drawn into a metaphorical landscape whose meaning lies in the subconscious of the artist. Depicted is a path that leads into the grassland, alongside it are two trees which create a symbolic doorway. What happens when the doorway’s threshold is crossed is unknown; the landscape seems the same on both sides of it. But the title “The Door” implies something is on the other side but what this something is, that is a mystery.