Jani Ruscica: Fold in and Fall Flat
April 2 – May 4, 2018

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Ruscica aims to probe the spaces that disconnect various art forms. As a result, one finds a multifaceted inquiry into these interim spaces and their underlying commonality. Using a variety of mediums – wood cut, sound, video, performance, photography and sculpture – his practice investigates the ties between interpretation and representation, collapsing boundaries of matter, language and meaning. Fold in and Fall Flat presents a similar kind of complexity and creativity, paired with a high level of challenge.

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UCONN’s renowned Puppetry Arts Program manufactured a 4-foot tall wooden puppet created to mirror the artists’ likeness. Activating the puppet requires three puppeteers, and is paired with a CGI rendition of the artist in the gallery space. The interaction explores different materialities as embodied by the two matching figures; their presence and their movements. While at UCONN, Ruscica also collaborated with the university’s Counterproof Press in the making of a new suite of wood cuts, as part of an ongoing series based on anthropomorphic fonts.

States Ruscica, ”Fold in and Fall Flat” will focus on presence and physicality, how one carries one’s body and the minutiae of gestures that go with that… Also, the different uses of gravity and a body’s capacity to acquire form will become tangible. These two representations of the same body in space, the puppet and CGI avatar engaged with the space independently from one another, yet maintain direct dialogue with each other through eye contact”