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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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'Miscreation' (2020)

rubyudys · Playlist · 9 songs

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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‘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.