Futurition is an invitation for viewers to look inside the artist’s self-described chaotic thought process. As physical manifestations of her consciousness, the sculptural paintings, video projections, and soundscapes are an exercise in reconnecting her body and mind. The multi-channel video installations project video collages of self-shot material including fragmented images of the artist’s body. The montage of body parts reflects her feeling of disconnection from the physical form and serves as a tool for Ruiz to see herself from a third-person perspective.

Two sculptural paintings feature her signature masses of foam, plastic molds of the artist’s face, and textural designs developed with a three-dimensional pen. While one painting is presented on a typical picture window wood panel, the other takes on an amorphous form. Two disparate sounds at opposite ends of the gallery space provide the soundtrack to Futurition, the centerpiece of which is a sculpture that serves as an incubator. Whether the incubation period is fruitful or results in destruction is up for debate.

Preoccupied with phobias, hypochondria, impending doom, and apocalypse for as long as she could remember, Ruiz arrived at the uncomfortable term “futurition” from a place of hopelessness. Futurition, meaning assurance of the future or a future existence, is a concept that Ruiz is uncertain of and wants to believe in. Viewing humankind as precarious and her corporeal self as fragile and decomposing, the artist’s use of industrial and indestructible materials to mold her body is not only an attempt to reconnect with it but also to ensure its preservation.

Exhibition text by Tina Barouti

Anat ebgi, solo, show