For his first exhibition at the Félix Frachon Gallery, Jimmy Ruf proposes « Vanishing point «
My work engages with vanity. The concept first appeared in one of the books of the Old Testament: The Poetic Books –Ecclesiastes 1.2. “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity…”. This “all” is the central point of my reflection. If all is vanity, then all living and manufactured forms yield to this observation. My art aims to transpose this absolute state of finiteness.
Starting from this first notion of vanity, I embrace the main themes of the human –the inanity of the human –death, sex, religion… with which we are assaulted, notably through the imagery of mass culture. For example, when we watch death and violence on television, our propensity to digest these actions becomes automatic. Through my work, I try to create a pause, a time to reflect and so a time to think of states of being: of solitude, morality, guilt…
My work is created through different mediums. Images appear as representations of “objects” [1]. I use writing to evoke mental imagery, these “words” do not drive the audience to the world they describe, but act purely as arbitrary signs.
[1] –I choose the word “object” as my perspective is essentially an artistic and aesthetic one. The images presented to the observer are above all objects, which, under a diktat demanded by remembered experience, take on symbolic forms.
