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Lot Essay
'Everything I do holds a kind of gesture in it. For me, it's this kind of dramatic gesture... Using so many different and multiple mediums actually allows me to transfer different aesthetics. Contextually they have different meanings, but they often wind up encompassing this kind of aura that I'm talking about. I guess, again, it can be a type of beauty'
(S. Ruby, quoted in 'interview with H.M. Post', in Utopia Parkway, Brussels 2009, unpaged).
Rendered on an impressive scale, Recondite fuses a multi-levelled wooden structure, scrawled with dense black graffiti, with obscure armatures enveloped by slick, luridly coloured drips of glistening plastic. Juxtaposing the matte, almost charred texture of wood with the glutinous, intricate qualities of the fast-drying polyurethane, the sculpture possesses a man-made quality and a visceral allure. Recondite has a physicality that dominates ordinary interior spaces, confronting the viewer and structuring their movements. Redolent of weakened, abandoned public structures and chemical reactions gone awry, Sterling Ruby's surreal creation questions our assumptions of sculpture and of monuments.
Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby's interdisciplinary practice provides a contrast to pure conceptual forms of minimalism, creating organic systems that possess a man-made quality and an allure despite their sinister nature. Ruby has described how he conceived of Recondite as an ironic interpretation of a traditional memorial: 'Recondite is modelled after a small desktop meditation fountain given to me by my mother. I had just come back from a trip to Germany [where Ruby was born], and I realized this small fountain reminded me of some of the fascist architecture I had just seen. The monument plays a big role in much of my work because it is defined as a structure built for the sole purpose of remembering something that has been lost. I came up with Recondite as a title, as it refers to esoteric or specialized knowledge. I was addressing the way artists of my generation felt trapped by a kind of postmodern burden of ideas, theories, and histories. It seemed impossible to make a sincere gesture anymore. This was my monument to all of that' (S. Ruby quoted in interview with H.M. Post, in Utopia Parkway, Brussels 2009, unpaged).
Echoing many styles and traits within the history of art, Ruby works with video and photography, drawing inspiration from graffiti, science fiction, institutional architecture, and antiquity. Ruby's work tackles aesthetic tropes and social stereotypes, using gestures that refer to notions of transience, transgression, and transference: 'Everything I do holds a kind of gesture in it. For me, it's this kind of dramatic gesture. A truncated gesture. It's like an expression that was at one point very fervent and then it just gets kind of stopped. Using so many different and multiple mediums actually allow me to transfer different aesthetics. Contextually they have different meanings, but they often wind up encompassing this kind of aura that I'm talking about. I guess, again, it can be a type of beauty' (S. Ruby quoted in interview with H.M. Post, in Utopia Parkway, Brussels 2009, unpaged).
(S. Ruby, quoted in 'interview with H.M. Post', in Utopia Parkway, Brussels 2009, unpaged).
Rendered on an impressive scale, Recondite fuses a multi-levelled wooden structure, scrawled with dense black graffiti, with obscure armatures enveloped by slick, luridly coloured drips of glistening plastic. Juxtaposing the matte, almost charred texture of wood with the glutinous, intricate qualities of the fast-drying polyurethane, the sculpture possesses a man-made quality and a visceral allure. Recondite has a physicality that dominates ordinary interior spaces, confronting the viewer and structuring their movements. Redolent of weakened, abandoned public structures and chemical reactions gone awry, Sterling Ruby's surreal creation questions our assumptions of sculpture and of monuments.
Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby's interdisciplinary practice provides a contrast to pure conceptual forms of minimalism, creating organic systems that possess a man-made quality and an allure despite their sinister nature. Ruby has described how he conceived of Recondite as an ironic interpretation of a traditional memorial: 'Recondite is modelled after a small desktop meditation fountain given to me by my mother. I had just come back from a trip to Germany [where Ruby was born], and I realized this small fountain reminded me of some of the fascist architecture I had just seen. The monument plays a big role in much of my work because it is defined as a structure built for the sole purpose of remembering something that has been lost. I came up with Recondite as a title, as it refers to esoteric or specialized knowledge. I was addressing the way artists of my generation felt trapped by a kind of postmodern burden of ideas, theories, and histories. It seemed impossible to make a sincere gesture anymore. This was my monument to all of that' (S. Ruby quoted in interview with H.M. Post, in Utopia Parkway, Brussels 2009, unpaged).
Echoing many styles and traits within the history of art, Ruby works with video and photography, drawing inspiration from graffiti, science fiction, institutional architecture, and antiquity. Ruby's work tackles aesthetic tropes and social stereotypes, using gestures that refer to notions of transience, transgression, and transference: 'Everything I do holds a kind of gesture in it. For me, it's this kind of dramatic gesture. A truncated gesture. It's like an expression that was at one point very fervent and then it just gets kind of stopped. Using so many different and multiple mediums actually allow me to transfer different aesthetics. Contextually they have different meanings, but they often wind up encompassing this kind of aura that I'm talking about. I guess, again, it can be a type of beauty' (S. Ruby quoted in interview with H.M. Post, in Utopia Parkway, Brussels 2009, unpaged).