Orogenesis
4’8″ x 23′ x 26′
Concrete, Steel, Earth
2019
2019 Artist Intern
*Currently on exhibit
Artist Statement
As an artist exploring the violent systems under which we currently live, I would like to acknowledge that this installation resides on the original homelands of the Wahpekute, Anishinbewaki, and Oceti Sakowin tribal nations. I recognize the ongoing process of colonization that alienates the traditional stewards of this land from where I stood creating these sculptures, and respect the many diverse indigenous groups that are still connected to this land.
My installation probes the way systemic violence against bodies and the earth are inextricably connected. Hand-bent steel torsos that I lined with trash bags and packed with concrete are layered together forming a horizon. I consider each torso a landscape in its own right, although its autonomy has been restricted to a cropped arched position the steel is unable to contain the fluidity and weight of the concrete. The bags have left their imprint, like scars on the surface of the concrete resembling fat, flesh, and bondage. The overflowing bulges represent the limitless intersections and potentials of each person’s experience.
The whitesupremacist-capitalist-cis-hetero-patriarchy values ownership over stewardship, production over autonomy, and devalues land and body for the sake of profit and control. On an interpersonal level as well, we have been taught to seek ownership. Visually each torso was inspired by the way we experience loved ones bodies, distorted by our proximity to them, like rolling hills to claim.
Something Happened Here
2’ 5” x 2’ 7” x 2’ 8”
Cast iron
2018
2018 Hot Metal Artist
Artist Statement
I use the physicality and immediate problem-solving required of sculpture and performance to negotiate my understanding of the world and see the intersections of my experience within structures of power.
I wrap my body in plaster soaked blankets with their own life-cycle I must adhere to. The object heats to an unbearable temperature against my skin as I hold the position, ignoring muscle cramp and numbness. The plaster captures and memorializes a moment that must be torn away from my body. I sacrifice hair and skin, caring more for the object than my own comfort as I wiggle and peel. Once I extract myself, though borne from my experience, the sculptures become objects onto which anyone can project their personal trauma.
I hand build figures from wax that has been melted down and built up again and again, inhabiting many forms. I play with proportions and cropping, creating discomforting figures that tread between tortured and erotic. The works reflect the oppressive landscape in which our bodies have been mystified for the purpose of forced monetization. As well as hand built forms I cast sculptures generated from performance. The building of multi-part molds is an intimate process that resembles a ritual or a prayer. There is a continuous revisiting of the single object, pulling it apart and putting it back together again with immense care and labor for each piece while knowing it means nothing except connected with the others as a whole.
Creating provides me with the space for self-reflection. I become acutely aware of what I can endure to achieve my goals. I seek to reckon with silenced histories, and ugly narratives of abuse and marginalization. I think we as people should recognize our positions within society and address the many ways our identities have been integrated into systems of power.
Cut Water
2’ 6” x 1’ 1” x 11’
Cast iron
2017
2017 Hot Metal Artist Intern
Artist Statement
I am a sculptor and performance based artist who explores how violence is used to enforce conformity and the ways in which people resist under oppressive systems.
I employ two main methods of production, processed based works and performance based works. My performative work revolves around ideas of comfort and societally enforced impulses to seek comfort in unsustainable places. I create these works by applying materials directly to my body and removing them in often painful ways. The works embody a history of repeated trauma in a way that allows me to extract myself from the pattern of violence and view it from another angle.
For my process based works I am often using rather violent means of production, deconstructing works to reconstruct them. I find this reflects the necessity of examining one’s foundational beliefs and self-perception through a lens that considers the white-supremacists-hetero-patriarchy of which we are all a part, as well as giving myself the space and physical labor to come to terms with the violence that has been done against me and those I love. I often tear up old works and reconstruct new ones from the debris, the reconstructed works resemble tectonic plates as I consider collective trauma memory and the connection between the degradation of people and degradation of the earth.
My figures are unconventionally cropped to show the way heteropatriarchal societies restrict the growth and development of people and their varied goals and interests. The incomplete figures, missing heads and appendages, represent the loss of agency one experiences from being expected to adhere to societal standards. By casting figures into metal or crafting larger than life figures I turn the commodified body into a source of strength. Size and material give the sculptures stability and their strength shows the way in which people consistently use the societal constructs wielded against them to their own favor.
Throughout these different parts of my practice I probe contemporary and historical patterns of violence, oppression, and actions of resistance and healing.
R. Carruthers
Born: Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1994
Resides: Takoma Park, Maryland, USA
Education
BA, Studio art and history, University of Maryland, 2017