The Mill welcomes Ruby Chew, the painter and Ida Sophia, the performance artist for a bold new collaborative exhibition, which transforms The Exhibition Space into a site for exploration, interpretation and multidisciplinary practice.
‘What happens when a Painter (Ruby Chew) and a Performance Artist (Ida Sophia) assemble for a period of 4 weeks to make work based on the methodologies, materials and processes of the other’s?’
Ruby and Ida invite audiences into the gallery to watch as their work develops over the first four weeks of the exhibition. Working within a process driven structure outlined in a joint manifesto, both artists will be bringing their own understanding of artistic practice, and a willingness to extend into new zones. While present in the gallery over the first period of the exhibition, the artists will be responding to weekly provocations traded in sealed envelopes. The final two weeks will remain as a static exhibition for audiences to view the work produced during the first period.
Artist Statement
Our objective is to subvert the normal system of an exhibition; how it is prepared, presented and received. Through this we will develop new theoretical underpinnings for our practices, birthed through process. The process is the exhibition.
We will respond to the materials, methods and processes from each other, and build from the foundation of our own practices. Envelopes containing instructions, provocations, methodological considerations and processes will be traded between us weekly. These directives will dictate the work that we make. We anticipate an exchange that is challenging and fruitful, producing work that pushes the edges of our practices into fresh territory.
Adherence to a co-written manifesto, written specifically for this system intervention, provides us with artistic constrictions, intentions and declarations. This includes a list of materials; 5 from Ruby’s practice, 5 from Ida’s and each a meaningful object to work from.
We invite you into this experimental exhibition where you can view work and engage in a participatory capacity. This is a purposefully fluid space, you will encounter all stages of artistic output. Consequently, the gallery will morph and transform weekly, we encourage you to return and witness the space as it evolves.
Artist Biographies
Ruby Chew is a painter who employs process-based making techniques to create open dialogues with her viewers whilst exploring the fluidity of pictorial space.
Completing a BA Visual Arts Hons. at Adelaide Central School of Art (2010), along with further study at Central Saint Martins, London and the Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Ruby’s practice is deeply rooted in traditional painting techniques, which are the foundation of her practice.
Ruby is a Ruth Tuck Scholarship recipient (2015) and has exhibited, taught and held residency positions interstate and overseas. She has had numerous solo exhibitions, notably ‘Portraits’ at Magazine Gallery (2011), ’Spitting Image’ at Hill Smith Gallery (2012) and ‘The Difference Between Things’ at Floating Goose Studios (2021).
Her artworks are in public and private collections across Australia, Canada, Malaysia and London. She currently lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia
Ida Sophia’s live art participatory performance, sculpture, installation and sound practice investigates how to approach loss in modern, secular life. Looking to facilitate our need for ritual, contemplation and completion, her works intend to slow down the dilution of ceremony.
2020 has seen Ida further develop her practice in durational performance through training with international artists Vest&Page, performances at The Venice International Performance Art Week Co-Creation Live Factory: Dissenting Bodies Marking Time. Her next durational performance will be at Floating Goose, spanning the month of June 2020. Ida Sophia has been mentored by a range of performance artists and curators, among them Joseph Morgan Schofield (Artist/co-ordinator of the Live Art Development Agency, UK), La Pocha Nostra (Artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Voin de Voin (Artist/Curator, Æther, Sofia) providing critical advice for her practise and development of participatory encounters.
In 2019, Ida held her first international solo exhibition at Æther Art Space in Sofia, Bulgaria, following her participation in the World of CO Artist Residency (Sofia, 2018). Ida has participated in the ‘Cleaning The House’ workshop with the Marina Abramovic Institute and exhibited in multiple group shows locally and internationally since 2017.
