|
|
 |
| |
| Få tilsendt info om nye artikler: Klik her for tilmelding |
| |
| 24. marts 2005 |
| Send din kommentar til
|
| Interview: Simon Le Ruez |
Simon Le Ruez har lavet
udstillingen "Historier om ensomhed" til demorummet i Århus
Kunstbygning. Jan Falk Borup har interviewet Simon Le Ruez om betydningen
af køjesenge og det at bo som kunstner udenfor metropolen.
Tekst og foto: Jan Falk Borup
Udstillingen "Historier om ensomhed" vises i Århus Kunstbygning
i perioden 20. marts - 5. juni 2005 |
Udstillingen er arrangeret af kurator Inge-Lise
Ravn
www.aarhuskunstbygning.dk |
Læs mere om udstillingen her: Pressemeddelelse
for Simon Le Ruez |
| Se flere billeder fra udstillingen
her: Snapshot:
Simon Le Ruez |
| |
 |
| Simon Le Ruez ved hans værk " Every
kind of Danger" 2004 |
| |
| HISTORIER OM ENSOMHED (STORIES OF SOLITUDE) |
| |
Jan: Can
you say a bit about your background and interests as an artist?
Simon: I was always interested in making
things from a very early age. I used to paint and draw a lot but felt there
was always something missing, there felt like a invisible boundary that
I was unable to cross working that way. When I started to make sculptures,
suddenly a light went on. It was the physical and tactile nature that excited
me and still does. I trained in London and Winchester and moved to Sheffield
around five years ago as it felt like a less obvious place to be than in
London. I am interested mostly in the simple things that are all around
us, how and why people do certain things and often the absurdity and charm
of this. I have described my work as a possible enquiry into what goes on
behind the net curtains. It's this interest in maybe revealing the things,
which we are not meant to see. Hence the use of materials like net curtain
that prevents us from seeing into houses and copper piping, which is normally
hidden under floorboards. Another phrase I have used is that I have this
'dialogue of little curiosities'. I like to play with materials to a point
where their inherent qualities and potential starts to be revealed and a
reference point begins to occur to something strangely familiar. |
| |
Jan: You
are not only using materials form daily life, most of your pieces on the
exhibition are also carrying a reference to well known shapes i.e. glacier
formations, reptile teeth, a bunk bed. Is this form of representation important
in order to understand the stories you are telling?
Simon: Representation is always important to me but what I am more interested in
doing with this work is reinterpreting something vaguely familiar in order
to spark the imagination. Yes I have made a work that represents a
bunk bed, but as it is not actually this I see it more as interpretation
of one. Whether it is important to understand this representation or reinterpretation
is an interesting question. I often feel each work has a boundary,
almost like, okay I can go this far with this work without actually
spelling something out, I don't like to give too much away as it can close
down the experience of the work. For me it is about trying to hit that fine
line between something appearing simple yet the more you look the more complexities
you see, or hitting that awkward and elusive place between ugly and
beautiful. What is important is that the stories can have different beginnings,
middles and ends to different people. |
| |
 |
| Simon Le Ruez ved hans værker "This
Mess we're in" 2003 |
| |
Jan: Are
you incorporating the exhibition space in the sense that characterise an
installation, or do you consider each object in the room as separate pieces
within the exhibition?
Simon: I do see this exhibition as an installation in the sense that I hope there
is a dialogue going on between the pieces. As the room has a very curious
shape to it I decided to almost emphasise and to an extent exaggerate
this and play with the ambience through the hanging and placement of the
individual pieces. The hanging of work has always been crucial to me and
it can take me a long time to get it right. To an extent through the hanging
of work I think you can control where the eye goes when you walk in a space,
particularly when you are showing three- dimensional objects. Its like the
little tree sprouting out of the form, I wanted this piece to be almost
hidden, like it knew something we didn't, placed where it is I feel it is
almost like a guardian watching over the other pieces. I hope the show works
in the sense that if one work was taken away or slightly altered then the
space and experience of the work would feel very different. |
| |
Jan: Would
you describe your visual language to be specific British?
Simon: I think there are definitely British
traits in the work, but these exist most obviously perhaps in relation to
the materials. Net curtain is typically English for instance, you see it
everywhere in England normally in houses in quieter areas or in the suburbs
of cities. It has this association with nostalgia. I think there are other
less obvious British traits, like the sense of humour for instance. I hope
there is a humour in my work but maybe it is the kind that one almost feels
guilty about, that sense of laughing at something that you really shouldn't
laugh at, but those are often the things that you have a smile on your face
about for some time after. I hope the work in the exhibition will translate
well, I think ultimately the experience is very open and there are works
included that have been made specifically for the space and as a direct
result of observations made while in Denmark. The piece 'Any Given Sunday
(Bike and Bootlace)' is one such piece and the piece 'Around the World'
was made specifically for that strange corner in the space. |
| |
 |
|
 |
| "Any Given Sunday (Bike and Bootlace)" 2004 |
|
"Around the World" 2005 |
|
| |
Jan: You
said in the beginning of the interview that you moved to Sheffield because
it felt like a less obvious place to be than London. Can you tell more about
why that is?
Simon: Sure,
I almost wanted to expand on this before. I have quite a long history in
London, as I mentioned I studied there and then stayed there for some time
afterwards. Its an exciting place but a very hard place to be for an emerging
artist, one can end up making a lot of compromises because of the expense
of things. Ten years ago the visual arts in England was very 'London centric',
I suppose that's what I meant by it being the obvious place to be, to an
extent it still is, but I think things are changing. There are some
major projects happening in the other larger cities, and where you
are based doesn't seem to matter that much anymore. As long as you are stimulated
by where you live and work and you are making strong work that seems the
more important thing. I see things in Sheffield that make me interested
or smile everyday, when that stops maybe it will be time to be somewhere
else. I don't pretend I could like in a backwater town, its important for
me to have access to things and I still love to go to London, its just right
now I am equally happy to leave there after a few days. |
| |
Jan: You
have described your practice as a possible enquiry into what goes on behind
the net curtains. Are there underlying psychological aspects in this interest?
Simon: Definitely. The curtain thing is almost
like a vehicle with which to explain this interest I have in what goes on
behind closed doors, its curious, where people may go to on a psychological
level when they are faced with a degree of solitude or they have to deal
with their own reality. I don't think it has to be this morbid thing, that’s
really not where I am calling from. I remember reading this story once about
a man whose wife left him suddenly one day, he stayed up all night in his
armchair looking into the darkness, then when the sun came up he suddenly
took it upon himself to go out and rake his lawn. When he had finished he
went round to his neighbors house and raked his lawn, then continued to
go from house to house raking all the lawns in the street. This tale immediately
made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. The point for me was how
the man was using this act of raking lawns as a diversion to what was happening
to him, almost as a way of dealing with it. I found that fascinating and
affecting. I have found myself thinking about landscapes a lot over the
last couple of years and how an interpretation of one could be a metaphor
for a psychological state. Take the glaciers on the bunk bed piece for instance,
when I think about the reality of a landscape like this I think of extreme
conditions, potential hazards and yet strange beauty. Beds are an obvious
vessel for psychological states, so by allowing the interpretation of one
to accommodate this kind of landscape I am trying to force the viewer to
go somewhere emotionally. The title ‘Every kind of Danger’ is
a clue; I was thinking more of emotional dangers and absence. The other
important thing is that glaciers shift and change as circumstances do, so
there is a note of optimism there, for me that piece is about longing. Its
funny because the first piece I made when I started to consider this thing
about landscapes was 'This mess we're in.' It is frequently referred to
as reptile like and threatening, but I see it more as an edge of a cliff
high up there on the wall, there are different conflicts going on, the hard
top surface and the soft yet potentially sharp underside, but again for
me this piece is all about vulnerability. |
| |
MERE OM SIMON LE RUEZ:
Simon Le Ruez er født i Jersey, England i 1970 og
tog afgang fra Winchester School of Art i 1995, med en Master i skulptur.
Siden da har han udstillet både nationalt og internationalt.
Samtidigt med udstillingen "Historier om ensomhed (Stories of Solitude)"
i Århus Kunstbygning, viser Le Ruez udstillingen "Acts of Generosity"
i Castlefield Gallery’s Project Space, UK. I 2005 udstiller Simon
Le Ruez ligeledes på Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK.
Le Ruez har fornyligt haft soloudstilling "Marks in Space" i
the Usher Gallery, Lincoln. Tidligere udstillinger, i England indbefatter
"Threats and Promises" hos Bloc Space, Sheffield, "Postcard
Show" hos Surface Gallery, Nottingham, "Return to Sender",
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford og "Pleasures Taken", en tegning
udstilling hos Derby City Museum and Art Gallery.
Han har modtaget adskillige priser og legater blandt
andet "Inspiral Creativity Award’ i 2003 og en "Arts Council
Travel Award" til New York i 2002. Simon Le Ruez bor og arbejder
i Sheffield, England. |
| |
Simon Le Ruez på nettet:
|
www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk
www.axisweb.org/artist/simonleruez |
| |
|
|
|
|
