That Tomb That Knows No Sound
Solo Exhibition
Lauren Ruiz
March 18 - April 16, 2023
MARQUEE PROJECTS is thrilled to begin our seventh season with The Tomb That Knows No Sound, our first solo exhibition of research-based multimedia artist Lauren Ruiz. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 18 from 5-7pm.
In this exhibit, Ruiz explores themes and variations concerning interiority: subterranean interiors of the earth (soil, water, insects, human and animal remains); interiors of religious systems (ritual, power, tradition); and interiors of the human body (mutation, decay, birth, violation). She investigates commonalities between these internal systems, their shared duration over time, and the external forces which act upon them – what is buried and kept, and what is mined, extracted, or taken.
During recent residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute and the Museum of the Southwest, the openness and wilderness aspects of the desert contrasted deeply with Ruiz’s accustomed urban/suburban habitats, provoking enhanced senses of vulnerability, isolation, exposure, and fear. But while visiting nearby Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the dark, still, receptive spaces of the underground and its atmosphere of deep geological time differed greatly from the severity and ceaseless daily activity of the terrain above. This juxtaposition naturally inspired ruminations on the frontier, contemporary expressions of American patriotism, country music, traditional masculinity, and her position as a woman. The Tomb That Knows No Sound incorporates sculpture and video-based work to investigate what happens when the interior is made visible, when stillness is interrupted by force, and when the sacred is disturbed.
Lauren Ruiz has presented projects at the Latvian National Museum of Art, the UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley, the 2021 College Art Association Conference, and the 2022 AAH Conference. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Japan, Canada, the Czech Republic, and Cuba. Ruiz has been a resident artist at the Guerrilla Science’s ArtSci Residency, the Santa Fe Art Institute Revolution Residency and the Museum of the Southwest. Lauren Ruiz lives in Bellport, NY, has been included in several group shows at MP. She is the Director of the Sagtikos Art Gallery at Suffolk County Community College Grant Campus.