About
Throughout October we are screening Jumping or Falling, 2012, by the John Jones Artist-in-Residence Ruth Proctor. Proctor originally trained as an ice-skater, competing at championship level, before dedicating herself to art. Her practice which encompasses sculpture, drawing, film and performance is underpinned by a performative element that shapes most of her recent work. Her work nearly always alludes to the body as spectacle, as physical capacity, as presence however there is a vulnerability to her work where the moment is fleeting and the potential of failure is ever present.
In Jumping or Falling, Proctor revisits her past life as a figure skater, testing her body's physical ability to enact the jumps of her competitive days. Filmed on 16mm, the resultant sequences are grainy and disorientating as they document Proctor's struggle to find her strength and muscle memory. Through the act of jumping a skater commits themselves to a moment of gravitational pause, and a loss in their awareness of where the body is in space. This ungrounding is echoed in the film, which shows the skater fading in and out of space, and at times inverted. There is no foreground or horizon. The skater and as a result the spectator become lost in space.
The John Jones artist-in-residence programme aims to support emerging artists working in London through the provision of a studio space and the resources available at our premises in Finsbury Park and Welwyn Garden City. Proctor's final exhibition resulting from her six-month residency will open in January 2015.
Biography
Graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2005, Ruth Proctor has since exhibited nationally and internationally. Solo exhibitions include Was There, Norma Mangione Gallery, Turin, 2014; Falling Backwards, Sainsbury Center For Visual Arts, Norwich, 2013; I'll be your mirror, Siobhan Davies Studios, London, 2011; and Luck and Protection, Hollybush Gardens, London, 2010. Proctor was selected for the 2012 edition of the Whitechapel Open, the Drawing Room's 2013 Drawing Biennial and Bold Tendencies 2013, all London.