Where do you belong?

Citizen of the Universe!

Hanging sculptures in wire, Ruth Asawa, c1959, at the Venice Biennale Arte 2022. Photograph: David R Elliott.

A few weeks ago I discovered the beautiful work of the late American artist Ruth Asawa, when I visited Venice art Biennale.1

Today I saw her work again at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art.2 Born in California 1926, she was interned with her family to a prison camp in 1946 due to their Japanese heritage and the political paranoia of World War II. But it was there that Ruth studied under world famous artists and illustrators who were also interned; she later attended the rural art school Black Mountain College, in North Carolina and never looked back.

Ruth developed a unique style of sculpture in woven wire: ethereal, organic, abstract, beautiful. But she also worked in print, observational drawing, figurative bronze sculpture, oil paints, ink on paper… and more. She did’t allow her practice to be defined by just one media. During her creative studies, she also learned how to be truly herself, not allowing the politics and prejudice of the time and place to define her: she identified herself as ‘a citizen of the universe’.3 I love that! I’ve always felt like something of an outsider, that I don’t quite fit. As someone who identifies as more ‘European’ than ‘British’, it’s incredibly affirming and empowering - particularly post Brexit!

As I read,4 visit exhibitions and practice in my studio ahead of an MA in Fine-Art this September,5 I’m thinking about where I belong, who are ‘my people’, who is my tribe? What do I stand for? What kind of art am I making? Am I any closer to discovering that, than when I was growing up? And where does my art practice belong in the melange of contemporary artists? I’m reflecting on where I am now and where I’d like to be; seeing Ruth’s work and reading about her has been an amazing encouragement to believe that I can both find my people and create my place and not be defined by others.

1. https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022

2. www.modernartoxford.org.uk

3. ref: Museum of Modern Art cataloge, ‘Ruth Asawa Citizen of the Universe’

4. Currently reading ‘Plan and play, play and plan - defining your art practice’ by Janwillen Schrofer, Valiz press, 2018.

5. https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/study/online/postgraduate/fine-art