Kris Ruhs: Hanging Garden

45,000 pieces of curved brass, iron threads and porcelain trasform the Galerie Azzedine Alaïa into a forest of suspended jewels and invite to enter the imaginary space of the artist.

Kris Ruhs, <i>Hanging Garden</i>, installation view at Galerie Azzedine Alaïa, Paris

Kris Ruhs’ (New York in 1952) work bends the frontiers of contemporary art and design: while at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where entire generations of artists of the 1970’s and 80’s from Joseph Kosuth to Keith Haring attended, Ruhs drew from it a great range of conceptual freedom blended with a deep fascination for the nature of material objects.

Since then, he has conceived complete environments, hand fabricated jewelry as art wear, built walls and objects of light, and thrown and fired his own ceramics; at the same time he is the creator of a body of work in the more traditionally recognized mediums of drawing, painting and sculpture.

With Hanging Garden (2014–2015) Ruhs presents an holistic installation made of over 45,000 pieces of curved brass, iron threads and fragile porcelain, each unique and each fashioned by hand. This installation embodies the foundational elements of Ruhs’ work: every item is unique, and the composition emanates from handwork as much as from the activity of imagination; every piece it is made of, and therefore every shape is unique; they allow the viewer to enter the imaginary space of the artist; in its ability to challenge the borders between goldsmithery, sculpture, installation and scenography, it invites the viewer to re-think the limitations imposed upon the field of art; most importantly, the work engages with every viewer.

It is also the result of the artist’s own journey and research, filtering through the rigors of the production process, while honing the multiplicity of his creations into a single work; simple and unique as today – a timeless short cut to the present.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Association Azzedine Alaïa and Carla Sozzani Editore including a conversation with the artist and a critical essay by Donatien Grau.