Looking for a free, unique exhibition to visit this weekend? Contemporary art center Ruby City just opened “Irrationally Speaking”, an exploration of the art mediums of collage and assemblage with a live demonstration from artist Richie Budd passing out popcorn to guests.
Elyse Gonzales, director of Ruby City, opened “Irrationally Speaking” at 1500 Camp St. During her introduction, she went over the artists she had invited, demonstrated how they fit the theme and explained how the exhibition was established in the first place. “Irrationally Speaking” focuses on artists who specialize in collage and assemblage, a form of art that combines multiple mediums and materials to create a piece. Collage traditionally focuses in the 2D, with images, fabric and pieces of paper traditionally used, while assemblage is focused in the 3D using a collection of different objects.
“This exhibition, like all of them, came out of me just spending time looking at the collection and noticing that there’s an awful lot of collage and assemblage in the collection,” Gonzales said. “Collage and assemblage is just so influential on many contemporary artists today.”
“Irrationally Speaking” features 32 contemporary artists and 40 art pieces from all across the globe in its exploration of collage and assemblage, demonstrating just how unique and broad the medium is as a whole.
Pieces like Thomas Hirschhorn’s “La Série des Antibiotiques (Orelox)” are more reflective of traditional collage work using printed images and ink, while Budd’s own work “The Closer You Get the More In Love You Become” stretches the boundaries of assemblage with a wide range of materials from McDonald’s hamburgers and fries to a bug zapper. No two pieces are alike in this large collection, bringing forth a variety of artists who take on collage and assemblage as a whole.
One of the artists mentioned, Budd, is a local artist from Fort Worth, Texas who has pursued assemblage from a young age. His work is one of the first pieces a guest spots, or rather, smells in the exhibit, with the popcorn maker connected leading guests into the exhibit before they even climb the stairs. The goal of his artwork is to call upon all five senses as a guest visits, inviting them to linger longer than in a traditional museum.
“Most people, when they walk into a museum, they look at an artwork for three seconds,” Budd said. “What if you started adding more things for the five senses? It’s the idea of having multiple senses and digging deeper into the memory of the consumer.”
After grabbing popcorn from Budd’s piece, guests were invited by Gonzales to stop by the reception organized by Randy Guthmiller. Guthmiller oversees all of the public programs and experiences at Ruby City and has been working in museums for the past 12 years in education and visitor services. He spoke on his own opinions of the exhibit.
“It’s very different from the other exhibitions we had, and it’s highlighting several works that either haven’t been on view before, or it’s been a long time since they’ve been out on view,” Guthmiller said. “It’s a really fun show.”
Ruby City works with artists to lead workshops and programs, and Guthmiller said that in the future there will be ones specifically focused on collage and assemblage, as the exhibit runs for nearly a year.
“Irrationally Speaking” is open from Sept. 9, 2024 to Aug. 31, 2025, along with more permanent exhibits at Ruby City such as the sculpture garden. Ruby City is open to the public for free Thursday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and there is free parking available on the street.
