ARTIST STATEMENT-

My name is Ruth Bircham I live in London, I am a self-taught artist who has studied a BA (Hon) degree in Fine Art Combined Media at Croydon College from 2001-2005. I use a variety of Medias and mediums in my work and subject’s covers a wide area which is inspired by the environment. My influences, thoughts, emotions, experiences and ideas are combined to create art that defies the normalities in our environment. I use the naked human form in my works to draw attention to certain concepts in the laws of ‘real and extreme’. For example, how we deal with the differences between our expectations and the reality of what actually happens in the mind when confronted with an Erotic image. My art deals with ideas that consider the impact of the male/female gaze and how the effects may provoke fantasy, intimidation, and confrontational views. My art work ‘Forbidden Fruit’ is based on Sexual Aesthetic which depends on the viewer’s own perception of how the naked form in motion should be deemed, as an art form instead of pornography, I found it very interesting how the skin changed colours as the body moved, very fascinating.

I would like to believe that I also captured movement from the bodies having sex with the intention of bringing about an orgasm, by creating intimacy and close communication of touch, stroke, movement and feelings of emotions of carnal desire to be gazed at aesthetically as art and language and not pornography. What if what you are actually looking at is not what you are looking at, how would you feel? i.e. as an artist, I create what I want you to see, so therefore I hold the power over what you see from my art, my art is about equality, my art questions the environment and its theories, it questions race, colour and culture, definition via what you see and think you are seeing, you see the colour black, therefore you think the colour black is a black body, no you are wrong. You see the white body and therefore think that the white body is white, you are wrong. Only I know what you are seeing for I am the author of my artworks. Bottom line is that looking at a nude of colour and sexuallizing it, leads one to question, who are you sexuallizing and what colour are you looking at, as only I know what colour you are looking at and sexuallizing. As the shape and form in my art cannot be seen, so it does not have a slim, skinny or fat look as it don’t emphasize on weight, it’s a powerful existence as it has many meanings depending on who and which culture is viewing it.

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RUTH BIRCHAM

LONDON, ENGLAND