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‘In Plane Sight’ 2017 

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‘Sulci Fungi’ Artists Statement

‘Sulci Fungi’, Ruby Udys, 2021, 50cm x 70cm, oil on canvas. (Available for sale: https://www.rubyudys.com/product-page/sulci-fungi )    

 Dream Scented Rushes was the third exhibition I have contributed my artwork to as well as my third effort as assistant curator in collaboration with curator and artist, Azzurro.  

I am so thankful for the experience and for having Azzurro trust me in the curation process, its an art in itself!

I'd like to share my artist statements, along with the artworks I contributed to this group show. The artist statement is detailed below.

The indentation lines on a brain are called, ‘sulci’ or ‘sulcus’. The biggest sulci on our brains separates it into two halves. The raised part of the brain is called a ‘gyrus’. To me, while I’m relatively unfamiliar with the terms, sound like components to a sci-fi narrative. The form of our brains with their organically fortuitous sulcus’ are capable of amazing things. Fungus has insighted curious theories, including Terrance Mckenna’s ‘Stoned Ape’ theory. Wherein, “psilocybin mushrooms (magic mushrooms) were the "evolutionary catalyst" from which language, projective imagination, the arts, religion, philosophy, science, and all of human culture sprang” (Appendix II: The Stoned Ape Hypothesis.) 

Radiotrophic fungus was found with the ability to turn radiation in Chernobyl into energy. Mushrooms interact with their environment so cleverly; their diverse form is so intriguing too. Its understandable that fungi or toadstools are so prevalent as imagery in fairy tales etc.   

The shapes and purpose of both brains and fungi are, upon further inspection, otherworldly. These globules that we live among, fungi and brains, grasped my imagination for this piece, to create a Wonderland that is unfamiliar, yet entirely reflective of our present reality.   

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I always listen to music when I paint, and I'd like to share some of the songs that were the background music for my creation of 'Miscreation', or that accompany the disposition of the piece well...    

Listening back to this playlist takes me back to precisely the moments of time as I painted this piece.   

I have never publicly released an artist statement for 'Miscreation', as I do with my other pieces. I don't think I plan to either. Sometimes the intention behind art is indescribable, but I believe that these chosen 9 song illustrate the 'mood' (buzzword!) that went into this piece.  

'Out of Time' by Deb Never.      

This song is so moody, and so was I in July 2020, when I began painting 'Miscreation.' The title vaguely alludes to the exhibition the piece was featured in, 'One Minute to Midnight: a Nuclear Apocalypse Exhibition.' It's dire, but in terms of climate change, I feel that we are pretty much 'out of time.' 'Miscreation', was however, not painted with the exhibition in mind, it is just visually a natural sibling to the concept of universal catastrophe. What could have gone so wrong for this to happen to a skull and or a pomegranate?   

'So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth' by Grimes.     

As aforementioned, while I was paining 'Miscreation', I did not have the 'One Minute to Midnight' exhibition in mind thematically, I did however, listen to this Grimes song quite alot, which is totally set in dystopian hell-scape. I paint pretty slowly and often sit quite still for hours on end. This song is floaty, calm and almost dissociative. A song to listen to as you  enter that 'flow state.'

'Thrive' by Dyssidia.     

This song sounds like a vigorous painting process. It is also a sound which my wonderful friends made. Not only is it painterly, but it keeps me inspired in the way of, "look how wonderful and creative your friends are, aren't they clever!?" The world is full of art that makes me get up and go for it too,  this is an example of that. I want to be a part of the creative landscape.  This ! song ! is ! Mighty !   

 Shout out to the homies <3  

 "Tracing thin threads through stems, 

 the botanist affixes fine stipules."   

 "One side forever wilted. The other never dead  

Ambrosial elements caged in forceful arrogance, 

 ignorant wisteria the lesser of two."  

  "To bruise the petals and see a dream where all the colours fade into me, you must find for yourself what this all represents before it's life swiftly withers." 

'I Don't Know You' by The Marías.    

I had just gone through a breakup with my first 'proper' boyfriend at the time when I began painting this piece. There is nothing quite like a first heartbreak! It was certainly emotionally driven, and that emotional pain is most definitely an undercurrent for this piece.  I love The Marías' soft sensitive music. I'd really like to curl up inside the timbre of their music and daydream for a while. In terms of album art and aesthetic of the band too, they are distinctly my taste. Superb.  

'Possibly Maybe' by Björk.     

'Possibly Maybe' is one of my most favourite songs of all time. Even recently in a 'ice breaker-get to know you' type activity for uni, I claimed that it was my favourite song. Now, thats commitment. This song will accompany me through many painting sessions to come. It also happens to be a song featuring some thematic emotional pain. Is there a recurring theme here? Possibly maybe. 

"Mon petit vulcan 

You're eruptions and disastersI keep calm admiring your lava"   

'Simmer' by Hayley Williams.    

Unfortunately, this song came out after I finished painting 'Miscreation.' Ms. Williams came through in 2021 with a cutting, mighty and very necessary, (what I feel to be a breakup album) 'Petals for Armor'. I needed this song in 2020, and I will need forever. Again, the emotional undercurrent!! Ooooft. 

"Rage is a quiet thing 

You think that you've tamed it 

But it's just lying in wait"  

 "If I had seen my reflection  

As something more precious  

He would've never Mmm,  

and if my child needed protection 

 From a fucker like that man 

I'd sooner gut him 

 'Cause nothing cuts like a mother" 

'Demolition Lovers' by My Chemical Romance.     

   My Chemical Romance were my first love. This song is able to conjure up some teenage sorrows, and it is sonically quite volatile. Heartbreak + musings of the past + volatility = vital ingredients for creative work.  

'Pain' by Boy Harsher.   

In my brain, or as per my chromesthesia, ("sound-to-color synesthesia, in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of colour" (Cytowic, 2018), this song is most definitely magenta.  Red and purple and therefore, magenta, is the punctuation for the emotional sensibility of this piece. 

'Hot Faced' by Margaux.     

Finally, 'Hot Faced.' To me, this song sounds like a pivot in thinking. A moment where you say to yourself, "I can make something interesting from my sadness." This song also sounds, to me, slightly  bitter-sweet romantic, but rather than romancing others, I thought it might be time to romantize my self and my art.  It's an acknowledgment of intense emotions, but also doing something better with it, if you can conjure it within yourself. A contemplation of all that you are, and all that you could be.   

"Hot faced, lamb woman 

Too quiet to be noticed 

Insane, what they all say 

Cry hard, you're not that serious"  

 "Please and thank you,  

come right in 

Now the king will see you 

Let your guard down 

Slowly, softly, sweetly, slowly" 

'Miscreation', Ruby Udys, 2020, oil paint on 120x120cm canvas (SOLD).

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‘Post-Humorous’ Artists Statement (2021).

 ‘Post-Humorous’, Ruby Udys, 2021, oil on canvas, 101.6cm x152.4cm, (SOLD), for the Azzurro curated, Chateau Apollo exhibition, ‘The Illusion of Fame', February the 10th 2021.      

The colloquial phrase “skeleton in the closet” was first written as far back as 1816, “used to describe an undisclosed fact about someone which, if revealed, would damage perceptions of the person; It evokes the idea of someone having had a human corpse concealed in their home for so long that all its flesh had decomposed to the bone.”   

Morbidly, fame is often ‘awarded’ after death, particularly to artists. Value and attraction of artists and their work is applied posthumously, which begs to ask these questions, what is the value of fame while you are alive? And if fame is so sought after, is there a value to death?  

The relativity of a person’s ‘fame’ is so often temporal, people in the public eye will often disappear without a trace, their relevance expires. In the short or long stints in the celebrity sphere, celebrities are pedestalled while also being ridiculed. What keeps the people of the public eye relatable and ‘human’ is so often what is privatised, until that is exposed and the illusion of fame dissolves… 

What is able to dissolve the illusion of fame has range, it could be an unflattering paparazzi photograph (ala, Britney Spears) or more maliciously, the predatory acts of Harvey Weinstein. However vain or exploitive the death of fame is, the skeletons unveiled cast a dark shadow on a life which is so deeply desired by many. 

Whatever the worth of fame, it comes at a price, your skeletons may be pulled out of the closet...

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‘On the Plumage of Birds’ Artists Statement

‘On the Plumage of Birds’, Ruby Udys, 2021,18cm x 12.5cm, digital illustration printed on poster paper. (Limited prints available at: https://www.rubyudys.com/product-page/on-the-plumage-of-birds ).   

Dream Scented Rushes was the third exhibition I have contributed my artwork to as well as my third effort as assistant curator in collaboration with curator and artist, Azzurro.    I am so thankful for the experience and for having Azzurro trust me in the curation process, its an art in itself!  I'd like to share my artist statements, along with the artworks I contributed to this group show: 

“Before the discovery of Australia, people in the Old World were convinced that all swans were white, an unassailable belief as it seemed completely confirmed by empirical evidence. The sighting of the first black swan might have been an interesting surprise for a few ornithologists (and others extremely concerned with the coloring of birds), but that is not where the significance of the story lies. It illustrates a severe limitation to our learning from observations or experience and the fragility of our knowledge. One single observation can invalidate a general statement derived from millennia of confirmatory sightings of millions of white swans” (Taleb, 2007), all it took was one black swan! 

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a professor of sciences, has devoted time to the consideration and labelling of life’s most improbable events. Events that lie outside the realm of regular expectations, as it where when the white settlers discovered black swans on Indigenous land. He uses this example of the white settlers discovering something that once seemed ‘improbable’ as a ‘Black Swan event’. Examples of Black Swan events include World War one, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the September 11 attacks, the 2008 financial crisis, the rise of the internet and personal computers, etc.  (Taleb, 2007). 

Without the hindsight we have now, the consideration of these aforementioned events in their worldview-altering ways, are absurd. A black swan event takes us from “How could two planes fly into the twin towers?” to “How couldn’t two planes fly into the twin towers? 

Our experiences of reality are shaped by our expectations of reality. We are amongst surrealism, absurdity, and possibility, each and every day. Surely that qualifies our living experience akin to Wonderland? If there is possibility for terror, there is possibility for enchantment. There is inherent magic in the native wildlife naturally found in Australia. We are amongst creatures and culture beyond any imagination, or at least to the untrained eye. You won’t believe it until you see it…

Reference: Taleb, N. (2007). The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Penguin.  

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This article contains some selected music which I painted ‘Post-Humorous’ to. Music helps to narrate the feelings that are integral in my painting process.   

For a couple of years I have been using Spotify playlists as a place to 'journal' what songs connect to me during a specific time or during a specific feeling, for a general example, 'i am not happy & i am not sad' and 'something wonderful is about to happen'. I believe that music has the ability to capture a moment or a sensation in time. The wonderful part about this belief is, that I am able to revisit segments of my life and feel exactly as if it had just occurred to me. I am able to revisit my thinking and feeling in the time I spent while I painted 'Post-Humorous' in early 2021.   

This article is additional to an artist statement that I have written about the piece, available here.    

'Post-Humorous' was painted specifically for the exhibition 'The Illusion of Fame.'   

'Sea, Swallow Me' by Cocteau Twins.     

When conceptualising and drafting 'Post-Humorous' in my head, I imagined a deep blue skeletal figure emerging from a deep, blank, dark, contained space. The blue in mind was very specific and essential to taking an image from my imagination on to the canvas. The sea, is of course the biggest, bluest and most beautiful thing we have on our green earth. The wide blue sea is tonally inspiration and this Cocteau Twins sounds like a glorious, engulfing ocean. The song is so textural, and therefore there is an abundance of imagery that can be prompted to respond to in a creative process. Further still, the lyrics below mirror some of the delusion of the Hollywood 'dream' and 'ruling the world' through a perceived fame.

"Horizontal to mono re-zones and we'll promise your dreams" "At least the sea where libertyWill stand in place to seek and rule the world" 

'Blue Sunday' by The Doors.     

Back to blue. I was really determined to depict this blue hue, I probably even had some pretty 'blue' Sundays while painting. The Doors are of course important in the consideration of the illusion of fame, because of the front man, Jim Morrison being a member of the '27 club'. The 27 club being a collection of highly successful musicians who have died in the peak of their fame at the age of 27. Some other members of the 27 club include, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix. 

'Biscuit' by Portishead.       

Portishead's music is indispensable to my art. Not only is their evocative album, 'Dummy', exactly what I am looking for in an album that is eerie, emotion-fuelled and searing with vulnerability...the album is also blue. 

“I'm lost, exposed Stranger things will come your way It's just I'm scared Got hurt along time ago I can't make myself heard No matter how hard I scream Oh sensation Sin, slave of sensation”  

'Teenage Blue' by Dreamgirl.     

I think that 'desire' or 'longing' comes up in my artwork subconsciously and indirectly frequently. This is probably because I often listen to music that relates to or is from an era where you might find yourself saying, "you are my one and only, forever" or even the potential of passing away from heartbreak. Twinkling guitars, 'doo-wop' and pining for one very specific person who is always unattainable, is what this song has going for it, and I feel that in my soul.  

"All that I'd ever see all that I'd ever believe is through

All that I'd ever see all that I'd ever believe is blue." 

'Why Do I Cry' by Margo Guryan.       

This song is gorgeous. The lyrics could also be a page out my journal. There was certainly a time in my life when I would cry every single day, and often I was unsure as to why. Nowadays, I cry when I am happy, when I am sad, when I am angry, when I am passionate, and on a Sunday morning...But thankfully not every day anymore. That was exhausting. In regard to 'fame', while it isn't explicitly related, I often think that the realisation of an 'undercurrent' is fascinating. For instance, "If things are going so well for me right now, why am I so miserable all the time?" What is it that you are missing? What is your skeleton in the closet? 

"Why do I cry?

On a Sunday morning

After Saturday night, was such a wonderful night

I should be glad,

Be glad that I could spend one night awake with you

Why do I cry?

When I have my coffee after you disappeared

It seems like almost a year that I'll be sad

So sad to only spend one night awake with you." 

'Ha' by HTRK.      

Can you tell I like moody music? This song is surely relatable to most, when you feel the need to admit something out of line to an ex lover. The statements in the lyrics are bold but they come from an ego which may allude to, "do you know who I am?!" 

"Can I be out of line

Сan we get back together?"

...

"If you stay

I'll make you a star" 

'Hiding in the Fridge' by Hildur Guðnadóttir.     

The music from the 2019 film 'Joker' I adore, but it's Hildur, the Icelandic cellist and composer who I adore most. I shamelessly went to see 'Joker' at the Cinema 3 times. What I feel from this piece, 'Hiding in the Fridge', is a brooding delusion and narcissist in solitude. This cold description could be a remark made to describe various people in the public eye. 

'Theme- From Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind' by Jon Brion.      

I love to listen to film scores when I am painting. It really romanticizes the whole painting process even more. 'Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind' is a magnificent film and the score carries the introspection and heartbreak with it. 

'Name Escape' by BODEGA.     

Finally, 'Name Escape' is the perfect song for a fame themed artwork. Detailing experiences that are all too familiar in the small town of Adelaide. The lyrics speak for themselves...

"Name escape Right now, name escape Name escape Right now, name escape

"Did you remember the Fender?" Said a familiar beard Whose band I always see Whose sound I never hear I cannot seem to place his face His nose or his shape Right now, name escape"

...

"And I've seen him at the poetry club closing our tabs I've seen him outside of metros hanging out cabs Hand on the fender, a message from sender I've seen his face but now no name remember

Online he's typing with a pseudonym So even messaging I'm not quite sure if it's him He never once makes eye contact When he talks he never once makes eye contact

And I have no idea what he does for a living Can't distinguish his head from the next His pants are much tighter, the last time we met." 

‘Post-Humorous’, 2021, Ruby Udys, oil on canvas, 101.6cm x152.4cm (SOLD).

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‘Record of the Record Shop’ 2017 

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‘Kewpie’ 2017  

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‘Verse Chorus Verse’ 2017  

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‘Untitled’ 2017 

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‘Nice to touch me. Nice to hold me. But if breaks me, Consider me’ 2017  

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‘Gnome Party’ 2017 

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‘Untitled 2′ 2017  

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‘Caged’ 2016 

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