Love Me Not (still), 2004, DVD, 5 minutes
Monique Meloche is pleased to announce the second solo show with Alison Ruttan.
Ruttan’s new video leaves behind her use of pornographic images and abstract forms for a more serious meditation on human behavior. The earlier work’s formal and historical relationship to painting has translated into an almost documentary study of bodily movement and raw emotion. Ruttan notes: “I am intrigued by responses that feel hard wired, particularly those that seem to undercut our ability to make a measured reaction.”
The exhibition will feature two new videos: Love Me Not, made with support provided by the Wexner Center Media Arts Program at The Ohio State University, and Lapse. Love Me Not is a 3-part installation featuring footage of non-actor couples asked to tickle each other until the point of exhaustion. Lapse is a single channel video documenting an actor in the process of theatricizing rage. Through these scripted but not choreographed encounters, Ruttan investigates the fine line between self-possession and instinctive action. The work emphasizes the visuality of human gesture and reveals the intensity of emotional content in physical expression, regardless of controlled intention. Each piece will be presented as a projected video installation and on a monitor, with a switch between these two forms of viewing presented at a second opening of the exhibition on February 24, 5-7pm.
Ruttan earned her Bachelor’s of Fine Art at the University of Michigan and her Master’s at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently Ruttan teaches at the University of Chicago. Two additional new videos by Ruttan are on view in the exhibition fight or flight at the 3Arts Gallery in Chicago through February 24 www.threearts.org.
