SKETCH/CUT/STITCH
RUTH RODRIGUEZ
SEPT. 9 – OCT. 17, 2022
SKETCH/CUT/STITCH – Curatorial Statement
Empty Set Gallery: SKETCH/CUT/STITCH, a solo exhibition by Dominican American artist Ruth Rodriguez curated by Sasha Louis Bush, presents a series of recent and new wall-mounted tapestries and digitally and physically made collages by the artist.
With knees drawn to her chest and wrists clasped one over the other, a woman sits alone on a couch. Her chin tilts towards her left shoulder, eyes gazing towards a point beyond the composition’s right edge. Her posture, rounded and slumped, suggests someone at ease, relaxing into her body.
Consider this small and deeply personal moment that Ruth Rodriguez presents us with in Pink couch with orange sentiment, a wall-mounted tapestry made with flashe and fabric on canvas and measuring 60 inches by 38 inches, from her Exhausted Woman series, and one of the twenty works in SKETCH/CUT/STITCH. In this woman’s refusal to meet our eyes she insists on the privacy of her solitude and the quiet, powerful space it offers for reflection.
Pink couch with orange sentiment is characteristic of Ruth Rodriguez’s inventive, singular practice. Her works center an intergenerational conversation between herself, her grandmother and mother, the latter, Dominican women who, after arriving in New York in the 1960’s, supported their family by working in textile factories making bras, lingerie and other fabrics.
Many of Ruth Rodriguez’s wall-mounted tapestries and digitally and physically made collaged works begin with sketches in a notebook. After scanning these, she continues to work on them digitally, making adjustments on her iPad. Once a drawing is complete, it is printed digitally, often on inexpensive materials such as shower curtains and commercially produced fabrics purchased in Ruth Rodriguez’s neighborhood in the Bronx. The choice of material reflects the artists’ explicit awareness of labor, class and access to art – thinking through the availability of materials and who can purchase or own an artwork once it is complete.
With each wall-mounted wall-mounted tapestry and digitally and physically made collages in SKETCH/CUT/STITCH featuring a woman, alone or in groups of twos, threes and fours, Ruth Rodriguez honors her grandmother’s and mother’s labor. And, building on their ongoing intergenerational conversation, she offers a resplendent array of new stories with powerfully moving candor.
INSTALLATION VIEWS
SKETCH/CUT/STITCH Artist Talk – Sunday, October 2, 2022