Over the past year, Ruth van Beek has created 100 new collage works. This extensive group of strange and peculiar objects, from bowls, heads, parcels and doilies to shoes, legs and fingers, is a further expansion of an ever-growing body of work in which things from our everyday lives are given a new form.
As in the old magazines and books for housewives that she collects, where images are often retouched to such an extent that they become strange intermediate forms, her work exists on the boundary between photography and painting. A moment of doubt emerges here, one that can make the entire image waver. This is precisely what Ruth is looking for. These are things that remind you of something, that seem familiar, that evoke memories and associations, but at the same time remain elusive and confusing.
“ I set myself the task of creating 100 collages. This pressure gave the work a playful speed. Just as in fairy tales, the number is always symbolic, a magical number that could help me bring the objects to life. For example, there is a Japanese folk tale about Tsukomugami, household utensils that transform into sentient beings when they turn one hundred years old. These animated objects are not necessarily nice; they go their own way and take revenge on the people who threw them away.”
The construction itself plays an important role in the meaning of the work. It is a literal way of setting something in motion and then fixing it in a new form. Simple techniques keep the work organised, while the actions involved in making it always remain visible. By dressing photographs like dolls, making them blush or adding small protrusions, a seductive illusion emerges. The figure is visibly a paper construction: both an object and an image of an object. Yet at the same time, it addresses us as something alive, as a form that evokes emotions: tenderness, disgust, wonder.
This tension between object and image is an important starting point in the work. The doll and her possessions serve as a useful instrument here. The reduced scale of dolls makes estrangement and recognition central elements of the experience. When you play with dolls, anything can become a body. The dress is knitted from the same wool as the body. The doll also carries a double promise within her: as an educational tool, she teaches a girl how to care; as a magical object, she promises power.
A doll’s leg, a small shoe, takes shape around a piece of painted paper. The originally photographed object has become a piece of clothing; everything just barely fits. The tightly fitting shoe makes the viewer uncomfortable. And yet there is nothing wrong: after all, a doll’s foot can take many forms.
Ruth is currently working with designer and publisher Willem van Zoetendaal on a new book entitled Legs. This book is a continuation of the previous book they made together. The sequence of images in The Oldest Thing is literally unfolded in Legs, forming the structure from which new work emerges and to which it can respond.
For more information, please contact the gallery at info@theravestijngallery.com
