RUBY RUMIÉ: CROWNED CUPULA, 2014
1,300 figures in zamac with gold semi-matte patina, steel and acrylic base, 11.81 x 30.71 in. diam. 30 x 78 cm. diam.
HÁLITO DIVINO – DIVINE BREATH, Ruby Rumié’s newest project, will be on view at Nohra Haime Gallery from September 10 to October 18, 2014.
The exhibition is a result of a workshop conducted in 2013 in the neighborhood of Getsemani, in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where the artist is originally from. The project focuses on the experiences of 100 women between the ages of 18 and 72, who have been victims of domestic violence. HÁLITO DIVINO – DIVINE BREATH uses pain and trauma to create and express, restore and heal.
At the beginning of the workshop, each participant chose one of 100 white pots arranged for them. They then exhaled their pain inside the pot, as an intimate and individual exercise that culminated the experience of breath as a force of life. At the end, the pots were sealed and marked with the initials of each participant, a symbolic gesture to encapsulate their pain. Each of them was given the figure of a woman, cast using the ancestral lost-wax technique, as an amulet, a token symbolizing her participation.
The exhibition reflects the three phases of the project: photographs of the white pots used in the workshop, black pots representing a stage of mourning, and 32 pots of different sizes crowned by delicate gold metalwork resembling the amulets the women received as a symbol of their rebirth.
Ruby Rumié has continued her questioning of the artist’s commitment to society, putting herself in a position where she deeply assimilates the information given by her interviewees, and looking for a creative way of managing social and psychological issues. The whole experience included interdisciplinary round tables that dealt with this issue.
Born in Cartagena de Indias, Ruby Rumié studied in the School of Fine Arts of Cartagena de Indias. She has held major exhibitions in Colombia: Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cartagena; Santiago de Chile; Miami; New York; Washington D.C.; Rouen; Paris. Rumié recently participated in the international section of the First Biennial of Contemporary Art, Cartagena de Indias. She currently lives and works in Cartagena, Colombia and Santiago, Chile.