Ro Robertson: Art Council Collection Acquisition
ARTIST NEWS
Ro Robertson: Arts Council Collection Acquisition
October 2024
We are pleased to announce that Ro Robertson's sculpture Outer Body has been acquired by the Arts Council Collection.
Acting as an expanded figure this body of steel represents an outer layer of armour. The symmetry of form connects with multiplicity of gender and a different figure emerges from each viewpoint. Butch lesbian identity is embedded in this tough exterior which lays bare imperfections and vulnerabilities. The different stages of weathering Cor-ten steel, and manipulation of the oxidising process reveal multiple natural shades of steel with welding used as mark making.
The abstract forms which are cut from sheet Cor-ten steel begin life as layered drawings which are made using the surrealist method of ‘automatic drawing’. This process between the unconscious and the physical situates the work in a place between inner and outer landscapes, between mind and body, in a place which is outside of the rigid binary structures I’ve learned to bend myself around. These methods are embodied as a tactic against the dissociative experience of being deemed “against nature” and being at odds with the environment around you. Queer abstraction provides a space to centre embodiment within a fractured lineage and violent history and to celebrate the potential of understanding the figure in new ways.
The physicality of the work holds a strong presence, a grounding, or a resistance to that disconnection LGBTQIA+ people can feel from their own bodies or to their own environments. Outer Body holds its ground. Dyke histories inform the relationship with strength in this sculpture, connecting with the heavy materials including metals we have adorned our bodies with for protection and to signify our inner and outer strengths and versions of ourselves to each other and the world.
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