Alison Ruttan: Unmaking of Places and Histories
October 25 through December 15, 2019
University Galleries of Illinois State University
October 24: Artist lecture by Alison Ruttan
November 9: Tour and workshop organized with the Children's Discovery Museum
Unmaking of Places and Histories features new and recent architectural ceramic sculptures by Chicago-based artist Alison Ruttan. She draws on the histories of art, architecture, and warfare to address the aftermath of conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, as a way of, in her words, "bearing witness from here." One gallery was dedicated to the artist's Dark City, a tabletop row of nine white ceramic buildings referencing the widespread destruction in Syria. The row of forms begins with a solid building, seemingly intact, but the other eight progressively crumble and flatten. Ruttan cites the influence of artists Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt in terms of remaking similar geometric forms, but in her work, various states of collapse and devastation are evident within the Modern grid. The artist sees the small scale of her works as a "purposely intimate anti-war monument."
The exhibition also premiered several new works for which Ruttan embedded her ceramic buildings and debris within found furniture. The blue-glazed ruins of a building reach upward from a narrow wooden dresser; a pile of gray rubble overflows the open drawer of a white nightstand; the remains of a black building freeze in a state of collapse into dark nesting tables. Where the tabletop sculptures of city blocks address the macro view, these works help make visible the impact of destruction on individual domestic environments.
Alison Ruttan: Unmaking of Places and Histories was organized by University Galleries' Director and Chief Curator Kendra Paitz. The exhibition and programming were supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Field trip support was provided by a grant from the Town of Normal Harmon Arts Program.
University Galleries website
Conversation: Alison Ruttan and Kendra Paitz
Artist's website
University Galleries of Illinois State University
October 24: Artist lecture by Alison Ruttan
November 9: Tour and workshop organized with the Children's Discovery Museum
Unmaking of Places and Histories features new and recent architectural ceramic sculptures by Chicago-based artist Alison Ruttan. She draws on the histories of art, architecture, and warfare to address the aftermath of conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, as a way of, in her words, "bearing witness from here." One gallery was dedicated to the artist's Dark City, a tabletop row of nine white ceramic buildings referencing the widespread destruction in Syria. The row of forms begins with a solid building, seemingly intact, but the other eight progressively crumble and flatten. Ruttan cites the influence of artists Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt in terms of remaking similar geometric forms, but in her work, various states of collapse and devastation are evident within the Modern grid. The artist sees the small scale of her works as a "purposely intimate anti-war monument."
The exhibition also premiered several new works for which Ruttan embedded her ceramic buildings and debris within found furniture. The blue-glazed ruins of a building reach upward from a narrow wooden dresser; a pile of gray rubble overflows the open drawer of a white nightstand; the remains of a black building freeze in a state of collapse into dark nesting tables. Where the tabletop sculptures of city blocks address the macro view, these works help make visible the impact of destruction on individual domestic environments.
Alison Ruttan: Unmaking of Places and Histories was organized by University Galleries' Director and Chief Curator Kendra Paitz. The exhibition and programming were supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Field trip support was provided by a grant from the Town of Normal Harmon Arts Program.
University Galleries website
Conversation: Alison Ruttan and Kendra Paitz
Artist's website
Photo credits: Jessica Bingham