Consciousness Land Art Wire Figures Gobi Desert Black and White
Five wire figures lean across a flat Gobi plain, as if walking into a wind that is not blowing.
This photograph shows Consciousness, a land art installation by Mongolian sculptor Ochirbold Ayurzana, standing on the open plain in front of the Gobi Caravanserai Lodge in the Gobi Desert. Ayurzana won the main prize at NordArt 2019 in Germany and represented Mongolia at the Venice Biennale 2024.
The figures are made of interwoven metal wire, so they are transparent: sky and wind pass straight through them. The work represents human consciousness in relation to nature, figures caught in impossible, bowed postures of balance between the material world and something beyond it.
Where another frame from this series shows three figures against a burning sunset, this one steps back and shows five of them. The nearest is the largest, bent forward from the waist. The others recede toward the horizon in a loose line, each one smaller and fainter than the last. Below them is flat gravel, and above them a wide sky of streaked cloud that takes up most of the frame.
Converted to black and white, the colour of the Gobi drops away and the picture becomes a study of line, scale and space. The figures read almost as drawn marks, thin dark gestures on a pale ground. The plain is so empty that distant power poles on the horizon are the only other vertical elements, which makes the sculptures look even smaller and more exposed.
I photographed the installation during a guided expedition, one of many trips I have led to Mongolia over the years.
This print suits spaces that can hold a quiet, open image: a large wall, a minimal interior, a room where the eye needs space to travel.
EXIF data of the photograph
- Camera Model: NIKON Z 7
- Lens model: Tamron SP 90.0 mm f/2.8 Di Macro VC USD
- Date taken: 15. 7. 2026
- Exposure time: 1/200s
- F-Number: f/9.0
- ISO speed ratings: 125
- Focal length: 49mm
- Size of the photo: 8256 px x 5504 px
