Sterling Ruby

Sex (2007) is a collage of photos based on other photos Sterling Ruby (b. 1972) took in Venice and in the Cinque Terre region of Italy. These places are famed for their beauty and cultural significance. In exploring the relation between power and architecture, Ruby made close-up photos of graffiti found in the public spaces of these places. He then manipulated the pictures in Photoshop and created his own symbols out of the graffiti. There is something violent about the way Ruby has treated the picture – it is as if he has attacked it. We see bold, glossy letters at the top of the picture; they spell the word 'sex'. The hard, clear plastic surface lends a fetishistic character. Droplets of water fall vertically across the picture and help flatten the graffiti-clad wall. Blue and black waves, seemingly painted directly on the wall, indicate that the building might be decorated with public art. There are also suggestions of bullet holes in the wall. One of the inscriptions says 'What doesn’t kill u…Only makes you stronger!...'

The personal quality of the hand-written messages contrasts starkly with Ruby’s elegant treatment and force a confrontation between 'strange bedfellows'. In this picture, traces left by the individual people unite with historic architecture and the artist’s gaze for a 'one-night stand'. It all seems to underscore Ruby’s notion of art offering a space for irrational behaviour. His sympathy for the individual is also emphasized in another work in the Italian graffiti series, namely Artaud (2007). The title here refers to the playwright and 'outsider' Antonin Artaud, who believed suffering was a necessary part of life. The conception of the suffering artist is linked with a desire to break with the traditions of art history.

But returning to Sex, in its new object-form, the wall becomes a palimpsest where Ruby adds his own expression to a myriad of existing inscriptions. Is this perhaps an ironic comment about the desire to create something new? Whether it is or not, a poetic force emerges from the discord between the technique and the concept. And even though Sex is a digitally produced collage, it has a relation to both painting and sculpture.
In addition to two-dimensional art, Ruby works with a wide variety of other expressions, not least glazed ceramic sculptures and nail polish drawings. He has also been known to stage porn actors in an art gallery. By transcending the boundaries of established genres, Ruby extends the use of materials and styles and forges new associations. An aesthetic emerges; one with an irregular rhythm in form, content and context.

MRF