Ruth Anderton

A Breath Caught in Motion – Painting with plaster, 2021, 40cm x 40cm, Plaster, acrylic paint and varnish on wooden board

Image description: 2D artwork using plaster to create patterns replicating the motion of human breath.

My practice is concerned with the idiosyncrasies of the human body, both in its inner functional workings and outer appearance. Manifested in two-dimensional work, the medium of plaster has been vital to my practice in trying to capture the movements present in bodily processes, such as breathing. I find it to display fragility and frustrations similar to that of the human body. The process of making the forms itself has surprised me in its comparability to bodily function. Moments where the plaster weakens and become papery reveals the delicacy of what to the eye looks like a heavy and dense form. Reproducing bodily functions between movement and stillness, activity and passivity, I had to draw only from my personal experience and perception of how such actions could be visually depicted. My current practice has been strongly influenced by an interest in the Russian reactionary poetic movement of the avant-garde, ZAUM. The ambition of ZAUM poets to assume movement through their work is something which I have carried into my consideration of the movement of bodily processes.

Email: ruthsian.anderton@gmail.com