On a cold rainy day I decided to go and check what was on show on at the Gallery Houser & Wirth near Bond Street and I wasn't disappointed as on show was Los Angeles based contemporary artist Sterling Ruby. I have never seen his work before the first thing I saw was a huge almost phallic sculptures called Monument Stalagmite made out of urethane then the Pot is Hot and CDCR all made out of strong bold colours resembling the American flag and the decaying American industry and economy.Strong reds and blues vibrant colours held by an armature, polyurethane poured on top of it, which gave it a rotten decadent feel. Positiuoned in the centre of the room around it paper collages combined with Urethane called EXHM on the walls.
Sterling Ruby Monument Stalagmite 2008
A Polyurethane Monument that pokes fun at the traditional way we see or think of a monument While the second half of his work was in the next door Gallery and was a combination of ceramics in one room then in the other room works made out of Fabric called the Vampire. The room that worked best for me was the one with the large poured polyuretahne sculptures which seemed to me about American domination and decline, consumption and waste.
Sterling Ruby Basin Theology/False positive Prophet 2010
The ceramics resembled vessels, rudimentary forms made out of vibrant colours but I thought they would have worked better if they where open instead of being enclosed vessels I didn't feel the outside which was less even then the inside worked well with the inside. They where filled with recycled fragment of damaged works that had been previously destroyed I think a reference to archaeological excavation sites but I felt they would have been better if left open. I did find the concept of this work interesting and also the fact that he used clay in a non traditional way exploring a concept instead of just displaying a beautiful piece of ceramics. I felt like I was exploring the space inside and outside the ceramic piece. Through his work I see a background in structural construction and I see he attacks the medium itself and society through analysing people who have been marginalised or found them marginalised by society he takes you to a different direction.
About the collages what can I say they didn't work for me nor did the textiles pieces I found hem repetitive of the same concept but lacking the punch line of the urethane sculptures.
Sterling Ruby EXHM 2012
Sterling Ruby Vampire 96 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment