Rut Blees Luxemburg in the Forum II
A reviewew of Rut Blees Luxemburg, Commonsensual, 20 November 2008, Forum
The lights are already out, and the projected image arrests you immediately. A scattering of spots, shimmer back under a golden light. The ambiguousness of what they are intrigues, and plays with your perceptions. Could it be distant lights out of focus on a rainy night or coins under water?
The images we are about to see comprise the past 15 years of Rut Blees Luxemburg’s work. We are guinea pigs, she says. The order in which she will show them will not be chronological or defined by place, rather she is interested in creating new meanings and dialogues through a series of carefully chosen juxtapositions. She describes the spirit running through them all as ‘commonsensual’, a word she constructed to explain her practice. The interest is in common space, that which is shared and public. She seeks to draw out from these spaces particular sensualities that are otherwise oppressed and obscured from our derogatory associations with what is common.
The decision to work mostly at night affords her a more productive space, she says, “…where there is an emptiness which allows you draw out something else… where you might see the city wrongly.” Using the available nocturnal glow and exposures of up to 15 minutes establishes the reciprocity between technical process and conceptual drive. Presenting that which is un-noticed and revealing poetic qualities through an almost golden colour palette. This raising of status comes also from Luxemburg’s linguistic playfulness, which focuses the subject within rich historical and cultural references.
A theme of reflection manifests itself in much of her work through the observations of nature in the city and particularly water that she describes as an, “uncontrollable liquid”, which she traces through the controlled grids of streets and surfaces. This has become her distraction, causing her to point the lens down and find the areas of discovery are literally at her feet.
This leads back to the very first image. The ambiguous spots that could have been described as divine lights are in fact chewing gum trodden into Swansea’s street surface. This surprise becomes delight at the way something so generally viewed with distain has been ascribed the title, The Kiss, in homage to Gustav Klimt’s painting of the same name. Such sensuality drawn from a place with the highest speed addiction rate in the country shows the true power of an artist to challenge our tired perceptions.
