Sterling Ruby

Pace Gallery, London
Private Collection

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although it fails to fully convey the different textures in the collaged elements. Condition: This work is in very good condition. All of the collaged elements are stable and secure to the backing. All surface irregularities are in keeping with the artist's working process. There are no apparent condition issues with this work.
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In the BC (bleach collage) series, Sterling Ruby repurposes scraps of fabric and clothing from his studio, which are collaged onto a bleached denim background. In their playful appropriation of everyday materials, they recall the influential work of Robert Rauschenberg and Mike Kelley, whilst they also embrace historically devalued cultural materials. Growing up amidst Amish communities, Ruby was influenced by the traditional gee’s bend, an often overlooked crafts-based practice that integrates old fabrics into the abstract patterns of hand-made quilts. Whilst such materials would normally be disposed of, they obtain a new life and function as the basis for quilts – and indeed, here as the medium of Sterling Ruby’s captivating works.

The artist’s attraction to the fabric remnants of works of art from his studio echoes his interest in what are often considered non-artistic mediums. Whilst the initial functions of the fabrics are destroyed through their appropriation, they become a powerful statement in Ruby’s work. Reacting to the austere masculinity and repression of humanism in minimal art, the artist invigorates the formal aspects of his work with a unique physicality and sensitivity. As he explains; “in America, masculinity is generally not associated with the fiber arts, craft or sewing. As a matter of fact the typical portrayal of the male who sews is often that of the outsider or criminal” (the artist quoted in: Mirjam Johansson, ‘Making the Comfortable Uncomfortable’, Bonnierskonsthall, 2012, online resource).

Taking up this outsider position through his characteristic disregard of established hierarchies, BC (4330) is an outstanding example of Ruby’s heterogeneous understanding of aesthetics and artistic production. The tactile quality of the different fabrics applied on top of the denim, fills the Malevich-like composition with a sense of personal narrative, subverting the clean formal language of minimalism through an emphasis on studio processes and found materials. Reborn from discarded pieces of fabric, BC (4330) becomes a compelling statement not only about formal and theoretical positions in contemporary art, but also about the life of the materials that support it.